
' '■ '^^^ "o 



v^. 



-S-^ 



■*.', ""^ j/i ^ % '^ -^ ^ , ;•'-"-, J' 









<i* V 



^^ ^c. 



''/ 






o_ 



N C 










■^ 



^^ -^c^. 






1 ^ 



/*1 c 



^ „ ^ . 



.-^'^ 



^ 



'O 



^0^ 

_ "V "^0 vo^ ^0 






N C 



/ 2 V 




■> \. 






.■=.■ 



.^^ ^*. 








EMBRACING A DIARY OP 



EXPLORATIONS ON THE NILE; 



WITH OBSERVATIONS ILLUSTRATIVE OF THE 

I 



MAmERS, CUSTOMS, AND INSTITUTIONS 



OF THE PEOPLE 



AND OF THE 



PRESENT CONDITION OF THE ANTIQUITIES AND EUINS. 



WITH NUMEROUS- ENGRAVINGS. 



l! 



BY J. V. C. SMITH, 

EDITOR OF THE BOSTON MEDICAL AND SURGICAL JOURNAL. 



-sof^o/vq^^ 



^^:>: 



BOSTON: 
GOULD AND LINGO 



? 1876. : 



53 WASHINGTON STREET. 



1852. 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1852, 

By GOULD & LINCOLN, 

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Slassachusetts. 



Stereotyped by 

HOBART & ROBBlks; 

NEW e:!TGland type and steueotyfe fouxdery, 

BOSTON. 



GEO. U. RAND, rrvINTEB, COKNHILL. 



TO 



EDWARD SUTTON SMITH, 



THIS EPITOME 

OF 



IS AFFECTIONATELY 



[isasaiT! 



PREFACE. 



An essential part of this volume, which embraces extracts 
from a diary, has been detached from a manuscript on Pal-. 
estine, soon to be published, because it relates particularly 
to Egypt, while the other refers to sections of Asia Minor. 
It was, therefore, thought advisable to separate them. 

Minute antiquarian researches have not been introduced, 
from the circumstance that every work that has been writ- 
ten, of late, upon that extraordinary country, abounds with 
particular details in regard to length, breadth, and height. 
Facts of this nature have been laid aside by themselves, to 
be used when occasion may require. 

Very many incidents might have been chronicled, of 
every-day occurrence, that were omitted, on account of their 
strangeness : they were so much at variance with the 
usages and. customs of Christian communities, that it is 
only by personally seeing and hearing that they could be 
understood. The difference between the institutions of a 
Mohammedan country and our own is very striking. 
Rather than hazard the possibility of offending any one, by 
the recital of facts without parallel out of the regions where 

A^ 



VI PREFACE. 

they are common, — which ayouH demonstrate the immediate 
necessity for hastening the universal diffusion of Christianity 
over those benighted regions, where moral darkness and 
despotism reign triumphantly, — nothing more has been 
recorded than commonly falls within the compass of a 
traveller's notes, collected especially for the gratification of 
a circle of friends. 

A few typographical errors escaped detection till it was 
too late to correct them. Some repetitions exist, also, hav- 
ing their origin in writing every day's observations where 
each returning sun brought into view similar sights, and 
exhibitions of society. 

Wherever drawings could be found that were better than 

those made by myself, they were unhesitatingly copied. 

Fashions always remain nearly the same in Egypt; and 

hence a true pictorial illustration, at any one period, explains 

the past, present and future, while the same race of men 

occupy the valley of the Nile. 

J. V. C. SMITH. 

Boston, March, 1852. 



INDEX OF SUBJECTS. 



A. 

PAGE 

Alexaxdeia, . . . .11 

" GoYenmient of, 27 

All's Breeches, .... 38 

Abdallah, 161 

Age, how reckoned, ... 88 

Apis, — Sacred Bull, . . 243 

Airing, on Asses, . . . 310 

Atfeh, 40 

Antiques, for Sale, . 142, 237 

Axes, 146 

Arabs, CMldren in Intellect, 163 

Antiquities, . . . . 166 

Sale of, . . . 213 

Astronomers, the Place for, 172 

Apples of Sodom, . . . 191 

Apollinopolis, . . . 191 

Architecture, Tomb of, . . 203 

Artinoe, 213 

Artemidos Speas, . . . 216 

Arabs, of Sakkara, . . 236 

Arrows, Poison, . . . 255 

Arsinoe, Canal, . . . 258 

Albarouck, ..... 267 

Attack of Bedouins, . , 352 

Adventurers, Medical, . • 356 



368 
378 



. . 5 

. 27 

303 

. 29 

. 167 

. 56 

61 

. 87 

65 

. 114 

77 

. 197 

Blindness, produced by Mothers, 82 
Begging Arabs, ... 94 
Bones, at Dendera, . . 160 
Bad Company, . . . .202 
Bastinado, . . . 219, 327 
Blind People, .... 24 
Brokers, .... 321 
Burial-fields, . . . .255 
Bubastis, ... - 258 
Benisooef, ..... 114 



Army, taking Soldiers for 
Abbas Pasha, . 

B. 

Bill of Health, Malta, . 
Beds, of a Palace, . 
Boat-songs, . 
Boats of Passage, 

" Slaves, . 
Buffaloes, bathing, . 
Barrage on the Nile, . 
Births, . . . . 
Boulac, .... 
Brick Pyramid, 
Bridle-bits, . 
Belzoni's Tomb, 



viir 



INDEX OF SUBJECTS. 



Bazaars, .... 

Backsliiesh, 

Beans, for Camels, 

C. 

Church Ceremonies, Malta 
City Expenditures, 
Canal, . 
Courts of Law, 
Contracts for Boats, 
Circumcision, . 
Cairo, . 

" Return to, 

« Old, . . 
Carriages, . . 
Citadel of Cairo, . 
Cattle, Droyes of, 
Captain of the Guard, 
Camels, 

Cavalry, Exercises of. 
Cholera, 
Clot Bey, 
Crows, 

Coptish Monks, . 
Charms, 
Crocodiles, 
Cooking a Friend, 
Cotton Factory, 
Chemmis, . 
Circassians, . 
Canteen, . 
Caravans, 
Coffee-houses, . 
Colleges, 
Crimes, 
Consumption, 
Childbirth, 
Charities, 
Cheops' Tomb, . 
Civilization, Ancient 



PAGE 

75, 319 



94 

262 



7 

. 28 

28 

• ,27 

30 

38, 60 

65 

. 225 

66 

. 68 

70 

73, 154 

77 

. 78 

77, 227 

86, 355 

89 

. 113 

125 

. 142 

145 

. 173 

193 

. 212 

222 

. 255 

264 

. 311 

313 

. 327 

353 

. 354 

360 

. 370 

376 



D. 

Diseases of Egypt, 
Dress of Females, 
Dragomen, 

" Plotters, 

Dancing, on a Boat, 
Dung, for Fuel, 
Drawing Water, in Cairo 
Dogs, .... 
Dining out, . 
Donkeys, for Hire, . 
Descent from Cheops, . 
Date-trees, 
Dervish, begging. 
Dancing-girls, . 
Doum Palm, . 
Dendera, Temple of. 
Digging with Hands, . 
Death in a Village, . 
Digging Mummies,* 
Death, 

Drummers, . 
Divorces, . 
Drawings in Tombs, 
Departure for Desert, 
Darabukkeh, 
Drunkards, 
Diseases of Egypt, 
Druggists, . 
Dietetics, 

Designs of Figures, . 
Deterioration, • 



. 9 

24, 335 

30 

. 163 

49 

. 57 

68 

. 73 

74 

. 76 

92 

123, 268 

144 

152, 307 

154 

155 

165 

173 

200 

, 225 

227 

281, 345 

195 

255 

306 

327 

349 

857 

859 

373 



E. 

Egypt, Time for going there 

Eyes, how to treat, 
" with only one, 
" rarely bathed, . 
" Evil, 

Engineers of the Bridge, 



58 
82 
86 
339 
64 



INDEX OF SUBJECTS. 



IX 



Entrance to Pyramids, . 
Explorations, anticipated, 
" Economy of, 

Esne, .... 
Edfou, .... 
Exile of Dancing-girls, 
Eggs, only clean Food, . 
Egyptian ]\Iind, 
Education, . . . . 
Episcopal Cliurcli, 
Eunuchs, .... 
Egypt a Problem, 



F. 

Foreign Offenders, . 

Fees of Consuls, . 
Fun of Sailors, 
Fingerless People, 
Fields, for Culture, . 
Farm-houses, . 
Fostat, . ' . 
Franks in Cairo, . 
Food of Horses, 
French Savan, 



Fair, 



Fuel, of Grass, 

Fow, .... 

Fish, 

Festivities on Deck, . 

Fee, Medical, 

Forge, Blacksmith's, 

Friday, Holy, 

Flogging, . 

Fleas, 

Fountains in Desert, 

Foreign Criminals, 

Female Dress, . 

Fever, Typhus, 

G. 

GoTernor of Alexandria, 



PAGE 

93 
159 
209 
171 
172 
171 
172 
206 
312 
335 
340 
382 



27 
37 
50 
50 
51 
56 
66 
69 
77 
81 



147, 263 
150 
154 
160 
163 
192 
210 
241 
259 
266 
327 
336 
352 



28 



PAGE 

Granaries, .... 28 
Gate, Examination of Luggage at, 37 
Guard at the Bridge, . . 64 

Gates in Cairo, .... 68 
Goat's Flesh, poison, . . 24, 87 
Geese, wild, . . . 112, 211 

" cost of, . . . 144 
Grass, for Fuel, . . . 147 
Guard, ..... 153 

" of Honor, . . .162 
Government, Policy of, . 165 
Guides, at Luxor, . . . 166 



Girls, Slaves, a Fveady Market, 167 
" carrying Mortar, . 170 
Granite Statue at Thebes, . 200 
Guides, for Karnak, . . 205 
Game of Chance, . . .211 
Geology of Beni Hassan, . 214 
Grottos of Beni Hassan, . .215 
Goats in the Desert, . . 265 
GhaTvazee, .... 306 

Government at Present, . 377 

H. 

Hovels, at Atfeh, ... 42 

Hair, of the Females, . . 55 
Hassan's Story, . . .59 
" Ambition, ... 60 
Hospitality, .... 71 

Horses, very fi^e, . . .77 
Houses, inside, ... 80 

Harem, . . . .89, 169 
" Economy of, . . 346 
Happy Family, . . . 122 

Heaven of Mohammed, . 149 
Holy of Holies, . . .158 

HoTvling of Women, . . 173 
Houses, Top of a Temple, . 19fJ 

iladji, 221 

Holy Land, . . . .229 
Health of Egypt, ... 230 



INDEX OP SUBJECTS. 



Houk, 
Heliopolis, 
Hemp, smoking, 
Hospitals, 
Habits, 

Handsome ]\Ien, 
Homoeopatliists , 
Hasheesh, 



PAGEl 

257 
257 
311 
316 
335 
346 
357 
359 



I. 



Inhabitants of Cairo, . • 69 
Impressment, for Army and Navy, 

85 

Infantile Diseases, . • 87 

Impostors, 163 

Illumination, . . . 228 
Inter mittentSi . . . .353 
Insanity, .... 363 

J. 



Joseph's Well, . 


. 


67 


Jewels, Love of them, . 


. 


168 


" on Mummies, 


. 


200 


Jackals, at Thebes, 


203, 


222 


Jupiter Olympiis, 


. 


207 


Jugglery, 


. 


233 


Jasper Pebbles, . 


• 


263 


K. 






Karnak, . . 166, 


203 


206 


Kom Ombus, . 


. 


186 


Keneh, .... 


149 


209 


Kadi, 


. 


323 


Krals, .... 


. 


268 


Kemenger, 




306 


Khideewee, . 




322 


Kindness to Animals, 


• 


332 


I.. 






Levantines, . 


. 




Luggage, . . . . 


• 


34 



Lake Mareotis, 
Locks of the Canal, . 
Laborers on the Bridge, 
Lanterns, ... 
Labor, low, . 
Lepsius, Dr., . 
Land Level, raised. 
Looking through Stone, 
Lizards, 

" shot, 
Luxor, . . . - • 
Legs for Sale, . 
Living in Tombs, . 
Lying-in Eoom, 
Lime-burning, 
Legerdemain, . 
Language, how to acquir 
Life, Mercantile, 
Laws, .... 
Love of Children, 
Life in the Harem, 

M. 

Malta, its Appearance, . 4, 5, 7 

Mosques, when open, . . 22 

Murder, 326 

Mahmoodeeh Canal, . . 39 

Manure, manufactured, . . 40 

Mud lilachines, . . . 41 

jMechanics, Postures, . . 26 

" herd together, . 69 

" rise early, . . 74 

Municipal Laws, ... 69 

Mounds, for Villages, .' . 44 

Mameluke Bey's Escape, . 70 

Mohammed All, . . 70, 381 

" his Remains, 71 

" Death regretted, 170 

Money, Love of, . . . 78 

Maiming, how stopped, . . 85 



PAGE 

39 
. 40 

63 
. 73 

79 

82, 215 

125 

. 141 

154 
. 165 

166 
. 200 

202 
. 207 

211 
. 228 

270 

317 

321 
. 342 

347 



INDEX OE SUBJECTS. 



XI 



Medical School, 


PAGE 

88 


Ophthalmia, Treatment, . 




PAGE 

351 


Mortality, uncertain, . 


87 


One-eyed People, . 




50 


Mud, falling, .... 


113 


Ovens, .... 




75 


Musicians, . . . 115 


, 150 


Obliterated Sculptures, 




167 


Minieh, 


126 


Obelisk at Luxor, 




166 


Moses, Birthplace of, . 


170 


Ornaments on Stones, . 




166 


Mummy-cloth, .... 


199 


Ombus, .... 




173 


Massive Shells, 


201 


Osirei's Tomb, 




198 


Manufactory of Saltpetre, 


208 


Orsirtasen, 




257 


Mohammed Bey, ^ 


218 


Obelisk of Heliopolis, . 




258 


Memphis, 


231 


Owl, 




264 


Museimi of Dr. Abbott, 


242 


Onion, Site of, . . . 




265 


Malek Adel's Tomb, 


258 








Musical Instruments, . 


305 


P. 






Mortar Carriers, 


329 


Passports, on leaving Naples, 


3 


Mother's LoYe, 


329 


Preparations for entering E^ 


gypt, 10 


Moris tan, 


361 


Post-offices, Alexandria, . 


. 


23 


Mysteries of the Pyramids, . 


369 


Palace at Alexandria, . 




26 






Police Court at do., . 


27 


,324 


N. 




Preparations for the Nile, . 




84 


Nights in Cities, 


24 


Prayer, Attitudes of. 




46 


Night-watch in Alexandria, 


28 


Ploughs, .... 




56 


Nile, below Caii-o, . 


51 


Pharaoh's Dream, . 




57 


" near the First Cataract, 


173 


Pyramids, . . . 58, 


91, 


365 


Nights, dull, .... 


72 


" Entrance into. 




367 


" cold. 


114 


Punishment of Government 






" guard, . . . 124 


,204 


Laborers, .... 




63 


Native Doctor, 


128 


Preparation for the Mosque, 




66 


Negade, 


163 


Police Sentinels, Cairo, 




72 


National Prosperity, how pro- 




Population, 




72 


moted, .... 


165 


Palace, now building, . 




79 


Nose-jewel, . • . 


168 


" of Mohammed Ali, Cairo 


, 80 


Nude Laborers, 


189 


Physicians, . . 


. 


88 


Name of a Child, 


225 


Pole-star, 4000 Years ago, . 




93 


Necklace of Menes, 


251 


Pelicans, .... 119, 


210 


Nay Player, .... 


307 


Patient, 




127 






Priest, Mohammedan, 


. 


142 


o. 




Pigeon-manure, ... 




145 


Ophthalmia in Egypt, . 9, 


350 


Planisphere, 


. 


156 


" causes, . . 9, 85 1 


Pudding, .... 




173 



XII 



INDEX OF SUBJECTS. 



PAGE 

Paintings in Tombs, . . 195 

Prosperous Arab, . . . 201 

Pottery, . . . • . 209 

Pauopolis, . . .. . 211 

Plague, Theory of, . . . 255 

Pyi-amids of Sand, . . 268 

Punishments.; Cai3ital, . . 326 

Palace, building, . . . 828 

Polygamy, .... 342 

Pillars in Tombs, . . . 215 

Prescription, .... 349 

Physicians, Italian, . . 355 



Quarantine Officers at Malta, 5 
Quarries of Silsilis, . . 190 



Route to Egypt or Syria, 
" by way of Marseilles, 
" through Germany, 
*' from Naples, 

Rainy Season in Palestine, 

Regularity of Life, . 

Roman Catholic Church, 

Reservoirs, for Irrigation, 

Riding, universal, 

Registration of Deaths, 

Reading a Contract, 

Rain in Upper Egypt, 

Rafts of Earthen Pots, 

Reliefs in Tombs, 

Ring of Cheops, . . 200 

Ruins of Thebes, 

Rest, no Day of, . 

Reis, his Conduct, . 

Rhoda, Island of, . 

Rameses II., Statue of, 

Rights of Property, 

Riding on Camels, . 



1 

2 

2 

3 

8 

9 

23 

52 

76 

87 

150 

157 

161 

199 

250 

202 

210 

213 

232 

239 

241 

256 



PAGE 

260 
270 
312 
330 
363 
363 
377 



Rope, Buying, 
Rope-making, . 
Rings, Signets, 
Religion, .... 
Roads, . . . . 
Ruins, .... 
Revenue, Public, . 

S. 

Steamboats to Malta, . . 2 
Sickness, not to be apprehended, 9 
Sabbaths in Egypt, ... 22 
Slave-market, Alexandria, . 25 

Soldiers in Alexandria, . . 28 
Sais, Site of, ... . 43 
Sailors on the Nile, ... 49 
Streets, one wide one, . . 68 

" crooked, ... 75 
Shoes, for Horses, . . 77 

Saddles, . «... 78 
Stone of the Pyramids, . 81 

Sphinx, . .' . . .89 
Sandstone Pyramids in the Des- 
ert, .... 113 

Shadoofs, 116 

Sunset, glorious, . . . 59, 121 
Sugar-making, . . 127, 146 

Shittim-wood, . . . 146 

Saws, 146 

Sculptures on Temples, . 156 
Stars, Brilliancy of, . .171 

Swallowing Pudding, . . 173 
Sculptured Stones, . . . 187 
Serpent's Skin, . . . 189 
Saltpetre Works, . . .192 
Sarcophagi, . . . . 199 
Sphinxes at Karnak, . . 203 
Snakes in Houses, . . 205 

Shoobra, 232 

Sakkara, .... 234 



INDEX OP SUBJECTS. 



XIII 



PAGE 

Sakkara, Pyramids of, . . 235 

Skulls, 237 

Snails in tlie Desert, . . 264 

Street Singing, . . . 310 

Schools, ..... 313 

Science, 316 

Small Pox, . . . .353 

Sodomy, .... 354 

Surgery, 354 

Smoking, .... 358 

Sculptures on Temples, . . 373 

Symbolical Literature, . 374 
Said Pasha, . . . .379 

T. 

Theatre at Alexandria, . 25 
Tombs of Sheiks, ... 45 
Teeth, purposely dra^rn, . 50 

Tattooed Females, ... 52 
Tubes in the Walls of Mosques, 67 

Taxes, 47, 79 

Telegraphs, .... 79 
Thebes, . . . 164, 166, 194 
Time, of no Account on the Nile, 169 

. 171 

. 188 

189 

. 191 

194 

. 214 

226 

240, 328 

258 

. 270 

305 

. 325 

201 

. 370 

372 



Tombs, Ancient, . 

Truths regarding Morals, 

Taxes of a Sailor, 

Tempering Copper, . 

Tombs at Thebes, . 
" of Beni Hassan, 
" of Mamelukes, , 

Taxes, Flogged for, . 

TelBasta, . 

Twine-making, . 

Tambourine, . 

TrialofaYfife, 

Transportation of Statue, 

Tomb of Cheops, 

Ties of Wood, . . 



V. 



Upset Boat, 



U. 



Vultures, . . . . 

Village Festivity, . 

Vaulted Tomb, . 

Vocal Memnon, 

Village, Depopulation of, 

Vermin, 

Veils, . . . . 

W. 

Way to Cairo, 
Water, for drinking, 
Water-raising, by Oxen, 
Water, in Mosques, . 
Weavers, 

Wading in a Canal, . 
Washing Infants, . 
Washing-day, . 
Wood, scarce. 
Wives, purchased, . 
Women, carry Water, . 
Wharf, Roman, 
Workmen of the Tombs, 
Weaving, Ancient, . 
Wife, buying. 
Woman at Prayer, . 

" numbers, . 
Wedding, . . . . 
Wood, Petrified, . 
Willoughby, Col., . . 
Water, boring for. 
Way through the Desert, 
Writing, 

Whip, a Badge of Office, 
Wives, .... 
Widows of Mohammed, . 
Women, wailing, . 
Walls of Temples, . 



Z. 



42 Zumarah, 



371 



47 



iCist nf (g' Eg run lugs; 



KARNAK (Fkontispiece). ^""^^ 

ALEXANDRIA, 11 

LADIES RIDING, 32 

FE3IALES DRESSED FOR WALKING OR RIDIXG, ...... 35 

POSTURES OF PRAYER, 46 

TATTOOED GIRL, 53 

PYRAMID, 58^ 

EGYPTIAN DOG, 73 

ASS, WITH SADDLE AND TRAPPINGS, 16 

MEN OF THE LOWER CLASSES, 84 

JACKAL, 90 

APOTHECARY SHOP IN CAIRO, 98 

THE SHADOOF, IIT 

PELICAN, 119 

VULTURE, .' 120'*^ 

aiOHAMMEDAN CHARM, 143 

PERFORMER ON THE lOijMENGER, 151 

TEMPLE OF DENDERA, 157 

LUXOE., FROM THE WATER, 166 



LIST OP ENGRAVINGS. 

Page 

NOSE JEWELS, 168 -f 

EDPOU, — ENTRANCE COURT, 192 

INTERIOR OF PICTURED TOMB, 195 

VALLEY OF THE TOMBS OF THE KINGS, 198 

SERPENTS, .'.... . .205 

FUNERAL PROCESSION, 224 

TOMBS OF THE ]\IAMELUKE SULTANS, . 226 

SACRED BULL MUMMY, 243/ 

PRENOMEN OF THE FATHER OF SESOSTRIS, 2i1-> 

SIGNET RING OF CHEOPS, 250 

NECKLACE AND EAR-RINGS OF BIENES, 251 

ORNAMENTED BLACK VEILS, .285 

"WATER CARRIERS, 28'7 

DRINK-WATER CARRIER, 289 

MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS, 303 

NAY PLAYER, 301 

DANCING GIRLS, : . 309 

SCHOLAR AT HIS TASK, 314 

POSTURES OF PRAYER, 331 

MEN OF THE MIDDLE AND HIGHER CLASSES, 334 

WASHING, BEFORE OR AFTER MEALS, 330 

WOMEN AND CHILDREN OF THE LOWER CLASSES, 337 

PARTY AT DINNER, 339 

PUBLIC WATER CARRIERS, 360 



PILGUIMAGE TO EGYPT. 



PORT OF DEPARTURE FOR THE EAST. 

If it is the intention of the tourist to enter Egypt or Syria, 
the point to sail from is Naples. A steamer may be taken, 
on the third and twentieth of each month, at Southampton, 
which goes from England to Alexandria, calling at Gib- 
raltar and Malta, — constituting the overland line to India. 
The vessels are staunch, well found, and safe conveyances; 
but their route is a rough, tedious way, and far more expensive 
than it should be, besides being a monotonous one. 

Taking the other or inland course, by first going to France, 
and finally sailing from Marseilles or Naples, some useful 
experience is acquired ; and, separately from the gratification 
afibrded by the contemplation of the works of art in that direc- 
tion, there is actual economy in it. The only reason why the 
cost would be more by land than by sea would be through the 
filchings of American consuls, for a vise of a passport. 

COST OF A VOYAGE FF.OM ENGLAND TO EGYPT. 

It is precisely as much as the traveller chooses to make 
it. Under a rigid system of financiering, the expense will 
invariably exceed the original intention, and, perhaps, the trav- 
eller's expectations. Sometimes more is desired for a certain 
1 



2 A PILGRIMAGE TO EGYPT. 

amount of money than is realized ; and, again, occasionally, 
more obtained than in strict justice should have been given. 
One thousand dollars is not too much to have at command for 
six months in the East. 

THROUGH GERMANY, 

By the Danube to Constantinople, is another route, occasion- 
ally taken by persons with whom time is of no account. 

FROM MARSEILLES OR NAPLES. 

If the traveller is indifferent in regard to Italy, and has no 
particular wish to go to Rome or Naples, he can take a boat 
for Malta from Marseilles, or sail directly to Corfu, the capital 
of the Ionian Islands, by way of Malta ; or, on arriving at 
Malta, take a steamer for Alexandria. From England to Mar- 
seilles, even in pursuing a proper economy, v/ill cost all of 
fifty-two dollars ; and it may exceed that sum. 

A French steamboat runs from Marseilles to Malta on the 
ninth of each month. The fare of a first-class passenger — that 
is, an occupant of the first and best cabin — is forty -five dollars, 
to which between two and three more may be added, for 
unforeseen contingencies. In the second cabin the expense is 
twenty-five dollars, not including meals. 

At the close of the third day, or early on the fourth, the 
boat ordinarily arrives at ]\Ialta from Naples. By this route, it 
passes through the Straits of Messina, affording a charming 
view of the ancient city of Messina, and the coast and moun- 
tains of one part of the beautiful island of Sicily. The volca- 
noes of Etna and Stromboli may also be seen advantageously. 

French steamboats are proverbially superior to the English, 
on account of the obliging character of the officers, on all the 



ROUTE THROUGH NAPLES. 3 

lines running to Malta. There are other substantial reasons ; 
the food is of a better quality, and served with regularity. As 
the days of sailing vary from one year to another, and new 
competing lines may rise into existence, it is rather difficult to 
determine precisely the day that a boat may depart. It is 
quite certain that a passage to Malta or Alexandria may be 
found readily from Marseilles. 

FROM NAPLES. 

That, on the whole, is the preferable place of departure. 
The boats are usually good, but the process to be passed 
through before it is possible to fairly get on board is vexatious 
in the extreme, and wholly arises from the jealousy of a 
despotic government, that watches every traveller, however 
peaceable or well-disposed, as vigilantly as though he were a 
desperado, or a military conqueror in disguise, who only sought 
an opportunity to subvert the empire, and victimize the royal 
family. 

A passage cannot even be secured in a steamer, till the trav- 
eller presents his passport at the ticket-office, properly signed 
and sealed by the consul of the United States, who shamefully 
takes two dollars for the vise. Unless that is done, the local 
police-office will not give the applicant liberty to leave the 
city. There is evidently a proper understanding between all 
these officers, by which they sponge as much as possible out 
of all who fall within their lair. After obtaining all the signa- 
tures, and paying all the charges, if the agent of the boat sees 
no rebellion in the looks of the applicant, and no one objects to 
his exit from the city, he then goes to the pier, with the lug- 
gage. Lastly, he must enter the health-office there, have all 
his papers reexamined, another vise added, a little money 
assessed, and permission is given to step into a row-boat; but 



4 A PILGRIMAGE TO EGYPT. 

there a sturdy, impudent fellow insists upon having a fee, for 
he is a police guard, and becomes eloquent about his dues, his 
rights, &c. There is no obligation resting on the afflicted 
traveller to pay him a single farthing ; and he is at liberty to 
cane the boatmen, — sometimes in collusion with them, — if 
they hesitate to push off for the steamer, lying at anchor. 

The passport is retained at the health-office, where all the 
particulars are transcribed into a series of large folios, and a 
set of burly, consequential, cut-throat looking menials of the 
crown, are supported out of the purses of strangers. A more 
provoking and useless series of forms could not be devised, to 
excite the contempt and hatred of both natives and foreigners, 
than are now practised in Naples. It is not strange that the 
people are restive under a yoke that is constantly becoming 
more oppressive. 

MALTA. 

On reaching Malta, if the boat is compelled to go into quar- 
antine, the detention and expenses incident to the execrable 
condition to which the voyager is suddenly reduced call forth 
a flood of useless indignation. Like all the health regulations 
on the Mediterranean, whether in France, Egypt, Syria, Tur- 
key, or Greece, they have in view a direct revenue from strang- 
ers, under the specious pretence of guarding the public against 
the introduction of infectious diseases. It is an unrighteous 
and intolerable imposition, that ought not to be tolerated ; and 
enlightened governments should negotiate with reference to 
breaking up a barrier to free commercial intercourse based on 
such very unphilosophical principles, if the powers enforcing 
them were honest in doing so. If there is any one act 
demanded of the only two free and truly civilized countries on 
earth, Great Britain and the United States, in their combined 



QUARANTINE REGULATIONS. 5 

capacity, it should be to put forth a declaration of uncompromis- 
ing hostility to the disgraceful system of quarantine regulations 
now in operation at every port on that sea. Even on land, by 
enforcing the same abominable measures for extracting money, 
a solitary traveller on a camel, crossing the lonely desert of 
Arabia, is compelled to pass five days on a sand-hill, before 
he is allowed to proceed. 

More than half the rigorous quarantines of Italy, and through- 
out the Turkish empire, are maintained in their present dis- 
graceful form through the trickery of subtle Italian physicians, 
who would depopulate the world if they could gain a profitable 
salary for whatever they might do towards it. On most of the 
stations they are meddling, ignorant, double-faced men, who 
are apparently resolved to ruin commercial relations, and limit 
the intercourse of foreign states to their individual permission. 

Whoever is obliged to abide a quarantine, although strictly 
a prisoner, guarded more closely than felons are watched, must 
support himself, and pay the person who furnishes supplies — 
usually a hotel-keeper at Malta, Alexandria, Beyroot, Smyrna, 
and the Piraeus in Greece — whatever he pleases to charge. 
Not a chair, table, candle, or a single necessary convenience, is 
furnished by the government. There is a room, — miserable, 
and generally filthy, — into which we are ushered ; and on the 
day of pratique, the room-rent is an enormous charge. The 
real and true object contemplated is to be paid before being 
liberated. At nearly all those black holes, there is a distinct 
sum assessed for the physician of the establishment, who is 
rarely ever seen; and, lastly, the guard, whose board is put 
into the bill, with a specific amount of wages by the day 
besides, has the impudence to ask for a present ! There are 
all kinds of ragged attendants, like vermin, to suck the 
blood of the incarcerated stranger, who put in their claims for 
1^ 



b A PILGRIMAGE TO EGYPT. 

compensation at the moment of making a final exit. In short, 
it is a legal mode of committing a robbery. 

Contrary to the expectations raised by geographers, Malta 
is a massive strip of terra fir ma, stretching out full ten miles 
to the west of the ordinary landing at Valetta, the capital and 
focus of business, and not a small piece of rock, as has been 
represented, covered with soil brought from a distance. There 
is nothing like it on the globe, in respect to batteries, fortifica- 
tions and guns, with their open mouths directly towards the 
shipping. The town is pleasant, well built, the houses high, 
and the streets clean, but rather narrow. They are up hill 
and down, in various directions; those towards the harbor 
being lined with shops, and pedlers of fruit, — cheap and good, 

— and priests, Roman Catholic processions of a showy charac- 
ter, and other sights that are* peculiar to that island. 

When we came into port, a physician — an Italian, of course 

— came alongside in a yawl, and demanded the bill of health 
from Naples. A tin box was handed up, into which it was 
placed, and returned. With an extraordinary show of precau- 
tion, the paper was taken out with brass tongs, read over with 
an air of concern, and, being found technically clean, away he 
went with it on shore. Malta had been awfully smitten by 
cholera just before our arrival, and no worse sickness than 
that they already suffered could be introduced. On returning, 
free consent was given to land forthwith, which probably grew 
out of the fact that it would be too glaring to quarantine a 
vessel in perfect health, and in that way absolutely expose the 
passengers to the hazard of contracting disease. 

Everybody appeared delighted with this good luck, and 
especially the taverners, as it was the very first arrival for 
a considerable time, — all commerce being interrupted, no 
ship daring to touch while the malady was raging. Never 



MALTA. 7 

had I seen such a rabble as encircled us, before ; screaming and 
hallooing in Arabic, English, French, Italian, and a mixed 
dialect, — a compound, perhaps, of all the others. They all 
wanted us to jump into their boats, and quarrelled fearfully 
among themselves for the possession of a customer. On land- 
ing at the foot of a flight of stairs leading to the entrance-gate, 
we were met by an army of porters, vociferous beyond endur- 
ance for the privilege of backing the trunks up a long flight of 
stone steps to the esplanade, where some of the hotels are 
located. 

Although Malta is English property, and under the military 
control of a governor sent out by the British government, the 
Italian interest seems to prevail. It is an insufferably bigoted 
place, and all that could be ascertained of the dominant reli- 
gious feelings disposed us to believe that a very large number 
of the priesthood would rejoice in the establishment of the 
inquisition. The churches — as in all purely Catholic countries 
— seem to be in perpetual requisition ; women — constituting 
three-fourths, if not more, of the worshippers — were constantly 
going in and out. 

St. Paul's Bay, where tradition says the apostle shook the 
serpent from his wrist, is about nine miles from Valetta. The 
roads are good, and the ride a pleasant one, on horseback or 
by carriage. It is questionable whether St. Paul ever saw the 
island. Evidences of the ancient occupancy of Malta by a 
race, and perhaps a succession of races, at a very remote 
epoch, are numerous. Mr. Winthrop, the American consul, 
has made researches that have already created a sensation 
among archaeologists. How the ancient inhabitants found the 
island, in what age of the world, or what became of the build- 
ers of the catacombs, remains open for discussion. There are 
two hospitals, reading-rooms, a show palace of the grand mas- 



8 A PILGRIMAGE TO EGYPT. 

ter of the expelled knights, a very formidable garrison, offi- 
cers in abundance, balls, amateur theatricals, concerts, band- 
serenades, and other amusements. 

The carriages usually seen in the streets are the ne plus 
ultra of awkwardness. They are huge one-horse chaises, the 
thills being a third too long, with the ends fastened nearly on 
a level with the horse's back. A driver leads the animal by 
the bit, or walks by his side, guiding him by long reins. In 
that manner ladies take an airing. 

Sunday is observed very much as in the Catholic countries 
of Europe ; the shops, markets, &c., being open as usual, and 
pedlers and hawkers crying their wares. At noon, a little 
more reserve is manifested than in Rome. An English influ- 
ence seems to reign in the afternoon. 

PERIOD FOR VISITING EGYPT. 

On no account presume to enter Egypt in the summer. 
From the latter part of October to the first of January is a 
decidedly favorable period. The weather is not hot beyond 
endurance within that range of time ; cool breezes from the 
north blowup the Nile, and if a design is entertained of ascend- 
ing that river, reliance can be placed on a daily trade-wind, 
that rarely fails, for more than a single day, to exert its force in 
that direction, south, for several months in succession. With 
the .'eturn of spring, the wind shifts, and blows from the south, 
with equal certainty. If the route is taken from the north, 
and the traveller first explores Syria before arriving in Egypt, 
— which, on the whole, is the preferable way, — he should 
reach Constantinople or Beyroot about the middle of Septem- 
ber, which will allow sufficient opportunity for a jaunt through 
Palestine, — reaching Cairo by the way of Ramlah, through 



HEALTH 0? EGYPT. 9 

the desert. In commencing a line of travel at this point, the 
explorations would be completed before the annual rains set in, * 
which are violent, cold, and uncomfortable to endure. The 
streams are frequently swollen so that they cannot be forded 
with safety, at that season. As it rarely rains in Egypt, 
above Alexandria, in the winter, no interiniptions by bad 
weather are to be anticipated. 

On the other hand, if, after finishing a tour in Egypt, 
the traveller arrive in the midst of the rains at Jerusalem, 
there must necessarily be a loss of time by delays for clear 
sky, a larger bill of expenses for an outfit, and a higher rate 
would be demanded for the use of horses or camels. 

No apprehension need be indulged with reference to the 
prevalence of diseases. If plague is not developed, there is no 
fear whatever from the existence of other maladies, which are 
not essentially different from those of temperate Europe, or the 
northern United States of America. Egypt is ordinarily as 
free from infectious distempers as the most favored towns of 
New England. Fevers, rheumatism, and slight cutaneous 
eruptions, are found in about the same ratio. Ophthalmia, the 
most to be dreaded of all the Nilotic disorders, is unquestionably 
produced, sporadically, through the neglect and excessive filthy 
habits of thqse who are the greatest sufferers by it. A want 
of personal cleanliness invites the activity of flies, which, in 
a majority of cases that came under my observation, had been 
the medium of propagating the painful affection from one to 
another. 

The common custom of eating, sleeping, and dressing each 
returning morning, as practised at home, should not be departed 
from ; but regularity, simplicity of diet, and an unruffled tem- 
per, are pillars that will sustain a traveller, in ordinary health, 
through all the varying scenes of climate to be encountered 



10 A PILGRIMAGE TO EGYPT. 

throughout the length and breadth of Egypt and Asia Minor. 
If a person happen to be slightly indisposed, he should not 
instantly resort to medicine. Should a dysenteric attack result 
from a too free indulgence of rich fruits on first arriving, a 
timely dose of pulverized rhubarb — from five to ten grains — 
may subdue it. 

Trusting to the recuperative efforts of nature in Egypt, 
unless there should be an uncommon manifestation of disturb- 
ance in the system, is far preferable to weakening one's powers 
suddenly, in a debilitating atmosphere, by depleting articles. 
Eat and drink precisely as you have been accustomed, and give 
yourself neither thought nor concern about what is safe and 
proper in dietetics, — since a restless, nervous anxiety gener- 
ates ails, without a corresponding power to control them. 

Carry neither provisions, wines, nor confectionary; nor, 
indeed, should the traveller burden himself unnecessarily with 
any luggage not positively necessary. Frequent changes of 
linen are conducive to stability of health ; and any neglect of 
that kind will be severely visited on the delinquent, in some 
parts of Egypt, by the annoyance of vermin. 

We arrived at Alexandria on the first day of November, 
from Malta, when the cholera had begun to wane ; yet strang- 
ers were greatly in fear of its pestilential influence. No 
regard was paid to it, whatever, by us. My habits of life being 
regular and temperate, — neither using spirit or tobacco, — no 
apprehensions were entertained. My course was marked out 
methodically, for an extensive exploration of the architectural 
antiquities of the valley of the Nile, and my health was perfectly 
good while I remained. At the expiration of three months, 
living on the ordinary food and fruits of the country, my 
condition was excellent. 



ALEXANDRIA. 



11 



alexa:ndrli. 



On the first day of November, 1850, we came into the port 
of this very ancjent city. The run from Malta was tolerably 
pleasant, and the incidents few. One day a little owl made 
its appearance in the rigging, when the nearest land was 




ALEXANDRIA. 

N. Lat. Sl^" 13'. E. Long. 25^ 53'. Was founded 332 years before Christ. 

presmned to be some hundred miles. From Naples to Malta, 
the Mediterranean was in such commotion, that a perpetual sea- 
sickness was induced ; but the nine hundred miles from Malta 
to Alexandria was a comfortable voyage. Squalls come up 
suddenly on that Sea, and rage terrifically, later in the season. 



12 A PILGRIMAGE TO EGYPT. 

A November sun is intensely hot in the middle of the day, on 
deck, the whole of the way. Acid fruits, particularly oranges 
and pomegranates are grateful, and were abundantly served to 
the passengers. 

The board is a distinct charge in the Mediterranean steam- 
ers, while the passage is another, and the service of each and 
all the waiters still another. It is, therefore, more expensive 
travelling in any line of steamboats on the Mediterranean than 
by the same conveyances either in England or America. 

Early in the evening of the day before going up to the 
anchorage ground, the light was discovered, — about the only 
one that side of a vast length of coast, from Egypt to the Black 
Sea. The water being rather shallow, and a mass of loose 
rocks lying in the middle of the narrow channel, we laid off 
and on, outside, till eight o'clock the following morning. As 
we neared the land, a light row-boat played about in the neigh- 
borhood, within hailing distance, with a crew of Arab pilots. 
The red caps worn by some, the turbans by others, with the 
peculiar costume of the country, now for the first time seen, 
were objects of special interest and amusement. 

As the pilot did not attempt coming on board, it was rightly 
surmised we were threatened with a quarantine detention, at 
the worse than stable accommodations of the lazaretto. When 
the anchor fell in the beautiful basin, some of the finest 
ships-of-war afloat, belonging to the Egyptian government, 
fully manned and equipped, were by our side. 1 have since 
been in very many of the harbors under the control of the 
Turks, but none of them equal this. Near the margin of the 
spacious basin, facing towards the sea, at the extremity of a 
point of land, is a tall, well-constructed light-house. Close to 
the water's edge, looking immediately towards the harbor, is 
the palace of the late Mohammed Ali ; a little west of it, on an 



ALEXANDRIA. 13 

elevation, the harem of his late terrible highness, which is a 
large wooden structure, painted white, of two stories. The 
upper, being expressly the residence of the ladies, has latticed 
windows. Those within can peep out, while those without 
cannot peep in. The gardens and grounds are kept in a toler- 
ably verdant state, by constant in'igation. A mighty rabble of 
boatmen, in all imaginable garments, white, red and blue, — 
all smoking, — kept up a deafening shout in Italian and 
Arabic , to engage passengers for the shore. 

In the mean time, a yellow flag had been hoisted at the end 
of the bowsprit, and we were hard and fast in quarantine. An 
Italian physician took the certificate of health with tongs, pre- 
cisely as it was done at Malta, and soon after pushed for the 
landing. Word was speedily brought that a detention of five 
days had been decreed. Tabooed as we were, with little or no 
provision on board, a feeling of indignation was at once exhibited 
in every countenance. Every one was in health, and yet, for- 
sooth, the doctor was for rigorously enforcing his orders, because 
we had touched at Malta ! Notes were addressed to the dif- 
ferent consuls, and there were merchants and others sufficiently 
interested in the caro;o and those confined to the boat to make 
a loud demand at the pratique office for the liberation of the 
steamer. The rascally Italian fought, against all remonstrances, 
for the maintenance of his official authority; while it was 
argued that nothing could be more ridiculously absurd, as the 
cholera was in the city, and those who had just arrived must 
be endangered by it, while the inhabitants could have nothing 
to apprehend from w^ell men. The doctor w^as eventually 
overpowered ; and the next day, at noon, after a useless deten- 
tion of one day and one night, we were liberated. A rapid 
sputtering about Abbas Pasha was often recognized. Perhaps 
the mischief-making doctor might have threatened the dis- 
2 



14 A PILGRIMAGE TO EGYPT. 

pleasure of his fat master, or was disappointed at not pocketing 
a fee for letting us out of durance ; for I subsequently learned 
that any favor could be purchased in Egypt, from the viceroy 
down to a camel-driver. Even a decision of an important case 
in law may be had according to the ability of the contending 
parties to pay the judge. 

When pratique was given, a fearful rush of wild, swarthy 
men, in bag-breeches, bare legs, red shoes, red caps, and blue 
laced tight-fitting jackets, or no jackets, sprang for the gangway 
of the Luxor, the name of the boat. Previously, we had been 
kept in supposed subjection by two ragged, dirty Arabs, who 
authoritatively sauntered about the decks, with long sticks, to 
observe and preserve — for they probably stole their living. 
They were guards put on the steps by the doctor when the 
yellow flag was raised. 

Exterior to the circle of jabbering boatmen, there were 
several dragomen, looking out for engagements to accompany 
travellers who intended to proceed to Cairo, or beyond. 

At Malta there are numbers of professed dragomen, who 
become tediously importunate for engagements. They quite 
smother one with their recommendations and self-praised qual- 
ifications, — declaring they not only understand every inch of 
Egypt and Syria, and speak as many languages as were spoken 
at the uproar of tongues when Babel was confused, but they 
endeavor to make it appear that it is all-important to take a 
dragoman whenever an opportunity presents. Remember not to 
take one from Malta, because the expense of transporting him 
to Alexandria, nine hundred miles, is a considerable item. At 
Alexandria, dragomen are very abundant, and no difficulty was 
ever found in obtaining one when wanted. 

One man cried out that he was the dragoman of Dr. Stephens, 
the author of Incidents of Travels ; another said he had been 



^. 



ALEXANDllIA. 15 

with Sir Gardner Wilkinson, when he was making explorations 
for his great work on the Antiquities of Egypt ; while others, 
equally earnest for a customer among some of the howadjis, 
— which word means gentlemen, — presented equally strong 
claims to patronage. 

Finally, we stepped -into a boat ; but the pulling and hauling 
of our trunks by contending parties, and the rapidity and 
severity of the blows they gave each other, made it clear that 
we were in a land of blows. By joining, to some extent, in 
the general turmoil, with a cane, which a volunteer Arab, w^ho 
subsequently was taken into service, plied most lustily, we 
ultimately seated ourselves quietly on a mound of luggage, 
and even struck the landing, to encounter still more extraordi- 
nary^ excitements, with quite a different race of human beings, 
the donkey-drivers. 

A palace in one direction ; hundreds of mud hovels in others ; 
minarets of mosques in the distance ; beautiful ships-of-war, 
with silken banners flying at the mizzen peaks ; old hulls of 
decaying frigates ; the glare of the sun's rays on the bare, 
heated sand ; with the hum of voices, and the slow pace of 
long lines of camels, — were novelties of no every-day occur- 
rence. 

It was a lovely day on which we left the water for the land. 
Soft breezes from the ruffled waves were refreshing, and seemed 
to promote the happiness of every one but the Italian doctor, 
whose face betrayed his stifled anger at being outwitted by 
those who interfered with his administration. Although suf- 
fering from political oppression in their own despotically gov- 
erned countr}^, Italians no sooner have an opportunity to exer- 
cise their innate propensities, than they become even w^orse 
than those from whose oppression they escape. 

By the tattling volubility of the crowd, it was evident that 



16 A PILGRIMAGE TO EGYPT. 

the arrival of a few foreign passengers gives activity to busi- 
ness, and each was hoping to profit by the movement. 

Before we had fairly stepped out of the boat, an immense 
rabble of carriers, pedlers, idlers, and donkey-drivers, backing 
their little stubborn brutes plump into our faces, beset us at 
every come-atable point. One urged the good qualities of his 
saddle ; another declared it was too far to walk up town ; and a 
hundred more were shouting, screaming, and bellowing, in 
broken English, all kinds of information, which was of no 
earthly importance. While this confusion was at its height, 
our luggage was borne off to the custom-house for examination. 
A small fee was paid to the faithful inspectors, who never 
troubled themselves to look an inch beyond the stratum at the 
top. The first lesson was here learned, that no officer of the gov- 
ernment, in the East, is beyond the magical influence of a bribe. 
From the man nearest to the throne to a mendicant in the 
street, backshiesh — meaning a present — is all-powerful. An 
Arab or a Turk will serve the devil as readily as Allah or the 
Grand Sultan, if he is paid his price. 

Every requisition being complied with, — the pasha's inspect- 
ing revenue officers bribed to let us pass, — knowing every 
delay would be made in the examination if we did not put a few 
piastres into their hands, although there was not a single 
dutiable or contraband article in our possession, a bevy of 
contending half-naked Arab boys lashed our trunks, bags, 
coats, and travelling gear, to the sides of the donkeys, so that 
the poor little things were almost concealed by their loadsr, and 
away we sped to the consular square, the focus of civilization, 
hotels, and paper lanterns. Should the traveller be on his 
route to India, he would not be subjected to these annoyances, 
as the overland transit company take charge of his effects, 
which are merely transferred to camels, or in part to a long 



ALEXANDRIA. 17 

flat on carriage-wheels, starting from the square, conveying the 
whole to a small steamer at the mouth of the canal that reaches 
to the Nile. 

It is not my intention to enter upon a detail of the past 
history or condition of any place. The historian has already 
accomplished that, and anticipated whatever might be written 
of the past glories, civil, martial, and religious greatness, of this 
and all the countries and territories on this qld theatre of 
humanity. My object is to relate the every-day scenes, and 
sights, and occurrences, as they were presented from time to 
time, while exploring the antiquities of Egypt. 

Among the number who were determined to be our drago- 
man, — that is, interpreter, — was Hassan, a sprightly-looking, 
dressy, intelligent Nubian, of about six-and-thirty, who man- 
fully kept the gathering rabble from devouring us. To his 
course of discipline they readily submitted. He swept a heavy 
stick right and left, and belabored some of the miserable 
bronze-colored wretches right merrily, without being rattaned 
in return. They bear blows with the indifference of a rhinoce- 
ros ; nor, in a single instance, were any of those most cudgelled 
noticed to manifest very marked retaliatory measures. 

Hassan was the pink of an Egyptian dandy, being fanci- 
fully embroidered down every seam in his back, — wearing 
immense Grecian petticoat-breeches, long white stockings held 
up by red garters, red morocco shoes, a calico sort of shirt- 
bosom, — probably without a body, — a red cap, swayed to one 
side, jauntingly, with a heavy blue silk tassel. In his mouth was 
a long pipe. Others were earnest to be taken into service, — 
natives 'of Malta, Cairo, Alexandria, Beyroot, and Philse, beyond 
the first cataract. 

Lodgings having been procured, a general survey of the town 
was commenced. It is a walled city, and embraces within its 
2^' 



18 A PILGRIMAGE TO EGYPT. 

mural enclosure space enough for three times the present popu- 
lation, — assumed to be one hundred thousand. One large open 
space — long in one direction and narrower in the other — is 
called the consular square, because the foreign consuls occupy 
the principal buildings, or, rather, have offices around the 
place. On the roofs are flag-staffs, at the extremities of 
which flags of the various nations of Europe, and that of 
the United States, are uniformly flying on the Sabbath. 
On other days they rarely raise them, unless there is some 
especial occasion. On our arrival, all the flags were at half- 
mast several successive days, in compliment to the Belgian 
consul, — the Queen of Belgium having recently died. When 
intelligence of the melancholy death of General Taylor was 
received, all the flags were lowered half-mast, out of civility to 
the American consul. 

All the streets leading out of the square, in w^hatever direc- 
tion, are quite wide, level, and well made ; but unparalleled for 
fine dust, that sticks to a coat, hat and shoes, like dry flour. 
Towards the canal, and in the direction of the palace, they are 
bordered by acacias, of the size of ordinary apple-trees, which 
are necessarily watered very frequently, or they would die. 
The ground is excavated, round the roots of most of them, in 
the form of a deep cup, into which a mud trench, or a raised 
mud canal, carries the vitalizing fluid, previously raised by a 
wheel, hereafter to be explained. 

The city of Alexandria, thus laid out by cutting through 
whatever happened to be in the line of the proposed streets, 
houses, mounds of rubbish, or division fences, had alike to give 
way to the energy of that very remarkable man, Mohammed 
Ali. The elements, therefore, of a large commercial city are 
there ; and it is quite safe to predict that it is destined, hereafter. 



ALEXANDRIA. 19 

as it once was, to be the capital of Egypt. There is not 
another port to be compared with it on that coast. 

A lady told me that she used to see the " good old man ride 
out two or three times a day, when the trees, now magnificent, 
were first set out, to see if the workmen did the business faith- 
fully." Beyond the wall, going south-easterly, are mounds 
upon mounds, and rubbish, that has accumulated into large 
respectable hills, — some, indeed, of enormous size. For miles 
in the distance, the surface of the ground, even to a very con- 
siderable depth, seems to be a mixture of hewn stones, frag- 
ments of columns, broken bricks, bits of brown pottery, and 
other miscellaneous refuse and waste materials of unrecorded 
generations, who have occupied these striking localities. A 
deep trench was dug round the wall at the south-eastern gate, 
which leads into the country : that presents, even to its bottom, 
the same fragmentary indications of the upper stratum, being 
made up, in and about the whole of Alexandria, of the cast-off 
rubbish of ages. It is one of the sights that excites emo- 
tions of surprise, to stroll over the now forsaken bare fields, 
thrown into irregular forms by the agency of hands that may 
have been resting from labor, in the mummy-pits, for four 
thousand years. 

Within the city boundaries, which embrace some of the 
broad-based eminences of the remote age of Alexander the 
Great, who converted the fishing town of Eacotis into a mag- 
nificent city, products of the same character, which are brought 
out, by excavations, at a distance of one or two miles, are easiiv 
discovered. I have seen people at work for brick, some in 
pursuit of hammered stone, and others, perhaps, were desirous 
of a granite column, — all of which seem to abound, in the 
greatest abundance, in those enormous magazines of ruins. 

Tradition fixes upon a broad swell, which is passed on the 



20 A PILGRIMAGE TO EGYPT. 

way to the canal, near Pompey's Pillar, as the site of the famed 
Alexandrian library. At the old harbor, the masonry of which 
is a startling exhibition of the tact of the old Egyptian masons, 
stands Cleopatra's Needle, a red granite obelisk, seventy feet 
high, in a single piece, and seven feet seven inches square at 
the base. The foundation on which it stands is constituted of 
different-sized stones, the top of which — six feet or more below 
the present land level of the neighborhood — shows how great 
the accumulation must have been, to have raised an extensive 
region so much above the original position. Some one has 
thoughtfully dug away the earth, exposing the bottom end of 
the column. I noticed that the lower extremity was not cut 
off at right angles, and, consequently, it did not set squarely 
down upon the foundation. A copper prop, over a foot long, 
and six inches in diameter, was set endwise under one corner, 
that appeared to have been knocked with a sledge, to raise the 
shaft to a perpendicular. A few rods west of this lonely 
sculptured monolith is its fallen mate, that must have once, 
and perhaps for centuries, been covered up in the earth, entirely 
out of sight. Its length is sixty-six feet, and it is covered with 
symbolical hieroglyphical characters. It was presented to the 
British government by Mohammed Ali; but it was too massive 
to move, and there it may lie, foundered, like a leviathan, with 
no prospect of ever being raised again. Both of these obelisks 
originally stood at Pleliopolis, where Moses is presumed to have 
been educated. At three-quarters of a mile distant is that splen- 
did gray granite shaft, called Pompey's Pillar, ninety-eight feet 
nine inches high, including the fixtures. The real single column 
is seventy-three in height, and the circumference twenty-nine 
feet eight inches, — originally polished like glass. It stands on 
a bare, barren eminence, vi^ith nothing about it to indicate the 
ipiendor that historical records declare e^xisted over an extensive 



ALEXANDRIA. 21 

field, where there is now nothing but desolation. A g-toup of 
dark Arab girls had broken oif large bits from the bold round 
moulding at the base, by climbing near ten feet to where the 
pillar rests on the sub-structure, which they offered to sell, — 
even begging hard to have us purchase. Finding that we 
m.anifested no enthusiasm, or willingness to buy, they threw 
them away, and then scampered back to their hovels with the 
fleetness of gazelles, their eyes being quite as wild, black, 
and sparkling. On one occasion, we rode several miles south- 
west, to examine the ancient tombs, or catacombs, cut into 
friable limestone rock, on the margin of the sea. They are 
extensive cuttings, into the form of large rooms, one beyond 
the other. The water has encroached upon them, rending the 
walls of some, and crushing in parts of others. With a candle, 
we crept into many a dark, gloomy apartment, that may have 
been stored with the mummied remains of priests, philosophers, 
and nobles, a dozen times over, since they were formed. 
Neptune, however, is constantly warring against these ancient 
receptacles of the dead ; and by and by, with the assistance of 
the sand, the decomposition of the stone, and the combined 
action of an allied force of wind and waves, they will be wholly 
obliterated. As works of art, they are not remarkable ; but as 
specimens of patient industry, they are extraordinary, and 
worthy of exploration. 

On the day of our arrival in the harbor of Alexandria, — 
Friday, — no business could be transacted with the function- 
aries of government in regard to a liberation from quarantine, 
because it was the Mussulman Sabbath. The day following, — 
Saturday, — when the steamer was liberated, no business could 
be done with the Jew bankers, because it was their Sabbath ; 
and, on the third day, nothing could be transacted with the 



22 A PILGRIMAGE TO EGYPT. 

Christians, as it was their Sabbath. This was, indeed, a sin- 
gular circumstance, — three Sabbaths in succession. 

All the streets are, as before observed, exceedingly dusty. 
Towards the palace, an occasional Arab, with a monster turban, 
bare-legged, bearing a skin of water — when full, having the 
appearance of a living animal — slung over his shoulders, was 
seen whisking a little feeble streamlet from the aperture. This 
was a primitive way of watering a street ; and not of much 
service, since it dried up nearly as fast as he let it out by 
loosening the string. 

Squadrons of donkeys stand saddled, for hire, at the port 
landing, in the consular square, and at other centres. The 
saddles are easy, but awkward in construction, — the pommel 
being quite a tumulus, a foot broad, and half that high. When 
one is mounted, a driver runs in the rear, belaboring the poor 
quadruped every moment of time ; — when the cudgel stops, his 
feet stop also. Some of the drivers have sail-needles, with 
which they give a dab in the shoulder, every few rods. The 
blood sometimes trickles down the fore-leg in consequence. 
I used to wonder how my fingers became bloody, till the secret 
of increasing their speed was discovered. 

The mosques being open, devout Mussulmans are seen going 
out and in, leisurely, at all hours; but on Friday, especially, 
there was a larger current than usual towards the doors. No 
secular employments, however, are ever interrupted on mosque- 
day, by the faithful. After saying their prayers, — of which 
some curious particulars may be related in the course of this 
narrative, — they return to their occupations. An elevated 
class of pious men — chiefly such as hold positions under gov- 
ernment — assume a more solemn aspect; and, if a salary is 
going on, cannot, in conscience, discharge any public duties on 
that sanctified day. 



ALEXANDRIA. 23 

«■ 

A large and fully-attended Roman Catholic church, embrac- 
ing a generous amount of land, a short distance from the 
consular square, indicates a thrifty state of its funds. French, 
Italians and Spaniards, — in short, all Catholics, come from 
wherever they may, — rally at its many altars. The church is 
large, has a bell, and bright and early on Sunday morning the 
flag of his holiness of Rome is raised. An Episcopal church 
is squeezed into small quarters. A pretty stone edifice, on the 
square, was going up slowly, while we were there. All the 
stone were of a soft, mealy, porous sort of limestone, brought 
from Malta. 

There are two post-offices. One belongs to the government, 
and was kept in a dark apartment under my lodgings. A mail 
comes down on horseback from Cairo, and another returns 
daily. Some idea may be formed of the native correspondence 
between the two great cities of Egypt, Alexandria and Cairo, 
by the fact, that each day's accumulation of letters from all 
sources makes a package easily transported in that manner. 
About nine o'clock in the morning, Franks and natives begin 
to cluster about the door. When the contents of the bag are 
assorted, the window opens for delivery. Postage is dear. My 
impression is that the cost of a single letter to Cairo was not 
far from eighteen cents. 

All papers, letters and packages, destined for Europe or 
America, must be prepaid at the transit company's post-office, 
at the easterly terminus of the square. 

In walking or riding, men, women, slaves and children, are 
met, in all sorts of queer garments, the representatives of diver- 
sified nations ; — Arabs in turbans and tarbousches, bare legs, 
either barefooted or in red shoes ; Jews, portly, sore-eyed, but 
sleek, as their tongues are oily in the exchange of money; 
Africans, black, tall, and lank ; Levantine females, veiled, and 



24 , A PILGRIMAGE TO EGYPT. 

in soft yellow morocco boots, stuck into long, peaked-toed yellow 
slippers; Nubians, with comely features, but black as jet; and 
intermixtures of all shades between coal-black and milk-white. 
Numbers of Arab women, with only a single garment, — a 
long blue cotton shirt, with wide dangling sleeves, the bosom 
split half down the waist, exposing their persons, — though 
cautiously concealing their faces with any quality of a veil they 
may have, are perpetually on the move, carrying stone pots, 
baskets, and whatever is to be carried, on their heads. An 
instinctive sense of propriety prompts them to cover their faces, 
while the remainder of their flabby, bronzed bodies are not 
regarded with indications of concern. They are seen driving 
herds of milch goats, with their pendulous udders secured in a 
bag, tied over their backs, to prevent the kids from nursing. 
They sell bread, also, and other eatables ; but, as a body, those 
of this order idle away a majority of their days by squatting 
round the shady sides of their mud hovels, raising poultry, 
doves, and fussing about their unstomachable children, of which 
they are usually prolific. No female servants are known in 
the hotels of Alexandria, — two or three of which have been 
organized since the establishment of the overland mail line, 
through Egypt, to India, — kept extremely well, \y Italians. 
Arab male-servants, principally, do all the indoor service, — 
even to making beds, and all that pertains to chamber-work. 
There is not much difference in expense between these hotels 
and those of New York and Boston. 

When night sets in, Alexandria is a gloomy place, — not 
being lighted. If a person goes beyond the door, he carries a 
lantern. In looking from the window, a few faint lights may 
be discovered flitting across the square; but by nine o'clock 
they nearly all disappear. Arabs and Turks, like birds, retire 
when the curtain of the heavens shuts out the light ; but in 



ALEX AN DRIA. 25 

early rising- they have no superiors. They hare no evenino- 
amusements beyond a pipe, nor a thought which disturbs them 
of the past, or a hope that is not to be realized, they believe, 
in the future. The slave-market, on one side of the townn, is 
a small court, surrounded by shabby old buildings, — a row of 
half sheds, half houses, — with doors opening into the area. 
The street entrance, under a rickety arch, closed by a gate, 
stood ajar, and in we sauntered. Perhaps there were twent^j- 
negresses, nine years old, and two who might be eighteen. 
They covered their nakedness by a grimy cotton sheet, held 
together by their fingers ; while their wire-twisted wool — for 
they were all from Dongola, where they were stolen — was 
profusely decorated with small coins and brass trinkets. They 
hovered about us, as though they were to be examined; while 
their masters — tall, spare Nubians, black as they were, but 
with regular, fine features — stood by to ask for backshiesh. 
A few piastres were given them, and we retired, to dwell upon 
the horrors of their pitiable condition. They were children in 
stature, and certainly so in intellect. Two only, of the whole, 
were any way interesting in their expression, or cleanly ; but 
they were mostly in robust health. 

Europeans have introduced a few amusements, but not of a 
very elevated or improving character. A small Italian theatre 
is occasionally in operation. Some stray, second-rate, straggling 
singer occasionally advertises a concert; and, in addition to those, 
a series of low, disreputable balls, or evening dances, are poorly 
sustained by the curiosity of strangers who find no resources in 
the antiquities and historical associations of the past, on a spot 
so memorable in the transactions of the world. In these recre- 
ations, neither Turks, who hold all places of trust, nor Arabs, 
who are crushed politically, and ruled by the fear of a basti- 
nado, participate. 

3 



26 A PILGSIMAGE TO EGYPT. 

All the houses and shops are beginning to have a civilized 
appearance ; and those occupied by the various consuls, bank- 
ers, and principal European merchants, are as elegant, comfort- 
able, and well-furnished, as the best class of dv^ellings in other 
countries. In the bazaars, a taint of the old customs is recog- 
nized. The native shopkeepers sit flat on the floor in pursuing 
their book-keeping and money-changing, waiting upon custom- 
ers by reaching their goods, in the little stalls in which many 
of them are located, hardly five feet square. Mechanics are 
seated at their anvils, on the floor; as also the shoemakers, 
tinmen, cabinet-makers, &c. fee, even down to turners at a 
lathe, — these last holding the chisel's point to the stick with 
the toes, the handle being in the left hand, while in the right 
is the bow, see-sawing whatever is to be turned, first back- 
ward and then forward. I was surprised at the nicety of 
the pipe-stems thus manufactured. Even large blocks, the 
diameter of four inches, similar to mahogany bedstead-posts, 
were beautifully turned in a bov/-lathe in that awkward 
manner. 

We went to the palace raised by the talismanic behest of 
the greatest man Egypt has had in modern times, the late 
Mohammed Ali. It was the fabrication of French architects. 
Some of the state apartments were superb, large, and lofty. 
Floor beyond floor even surpassed very many of the best I have 
seen in the royal residences of Europe. One, in particular, 
was inlaid with black ebony, polished to vie with a mirror. 
Most of the drapery was entirely French in taste and material ; 
and the chairs, a billiard-table, chandeliers, and other appurte- 
nances of elegance, made it evident that they had been selected 
by some one who had good taste and a full purse. Neither 
pictures nor statuary were there. Fat cushions, to be dropped 
about the floor, for lolling or sleeping, were piled up in a cor- 



ALEXANDRIA. 27 

ner ; and a wide divan — a bench, not dissimilar to a tailor's 
work-table — extended across the end of one pretty room, for 
sleeping. There Vy^as one bedstead, but we were informed 
that his late highness always preferred the floor. Immense 
looking-glasses had been up, but were now packed in boxes, to 
be removed, by order of the reigning pasha. Some boxes of 
new furniture, just arrived, were in the basement. The grounds 
were prettily cultivated, for Eg}rpt, yet there was a stiffness 
and sameness in the plants. Of course, no one was allowed to 
pass on to the next enclosure, — the mysterious harem, — 
where three-and-twenty widows of one man, the defunct regen- 
erator and N-apoleon of the land of the Pharaohs, were immured 
in a fairy cell, where the customs of society require they shall 
remain to the day of death. 

Alexandria is a well-regulated, securely -governed city. With 
a population presumed to be one hundred thousand, there is 
neither a mayor, aldennen, common council, assessors, a treas- 
urer, overseers of the poor, an almshouse, penitentiary, or 
house of correction. There is a lock-up, equivalent to a jail ; 
but the demand for more spacious accom^modations has not 
been made on account of the increase of crime. 

There are two courts, special in their character, and exten- 
sive in jurisdiction. A military officer — a colonel — presided 
over the first, seated cross-legged on a cushion ; on the left of 
whom were two portly, smoking, sedate Turks, who were said 
to be assistants. The other, — the court of the kadi, — like 
the kadi at Cairo, receives his appointment from the sultan, 
and is sent from Constantinople. Foreign offenders are given 
over to the consuls of their respective governments, w^ho send 
them home for trial. The presiding police justice apparently 
takes cognizance of every want of the citizens, as well as their 
delinquencies. If a favor is asked of the government, he is 



28 A PILGRIMAGE TO EGYPT. 

first addressed. A military governor writes to Cairo for lib- 
erty to do this or that, by way of improvement or necessity, in 
the city. The minister of the home department grants it or 
not, perhaps in accordance with the will of the pasha, who is 
absolute in every respect, even to the minutest details of agri- 
culture, the arts, and the personal liberty of his subjects. 
Whatever is expended for public purposes comes out of the 
public treasury ; and that is kept in a plethoric condition by 
imposts and direct taxation. Soldiers are quartered about the 
city, — considerable numbers being in barracks, — and at the 
police-stations, for police duties devolve upon them. At night 
the watch is numerous, men being within hail of each other 
over the whole territory of the city. One of them halloos with 
all his strength, about every half-hour, in the consular square ; 
and the next imitates him, and thus the noise is propagated 
quickly over the whole of the city. It is excessively annoying, 
and is probably required of the soldiers to keep them from 
sleeping at their posts. This night uproar of the police is the 
worst nuisance to be met with in Alexandria. The system of 
management in the schools, the punishments, the crimes char- 
acteristic of the mixed population, and the manner of conduct- 
ing suits at law, will be considered hereafter. 

I made many visits to the canal, the liveliest district in the 
city, where boats are constantly arriving from the upper Nile, 
laden with produce, manufactures and passengers, from Nubia, 
Abyssinia, and still more distant regions beyond. 

One week is a sufficiently short time to become initiated 
into the new phases of humanity in a professedly unchristian 
country. A tour at the public granaries, v/here a continuous 
stream is pouring in from the top of the roof; the cargoes 
of beans, corn, millet, and wheat, that are coming out at 
the door, and conveyed on a track of railroad, — the only one 



LIL^.YING ALEXANDRIA TOR CAIRO. 29 

in Eg}^pt, — fen rods in length, to the end of a pier ; the call 
to prayers from the minarets; the barking of dogs, from 
sunset to sunrise, and the general movement of the social 
machinery ; the strangeness of the turbans ; the slow trains 
of camels, with noiseless feet ; the hum of activity, the variety 
of dialects, and the novelty of being in Africa, — a country 
the most marvellous in its history, the most extraordinary in 
its antiquities, and the most anomalous in its present organ- 
ization, — is well calculated to keep up an excitement which 
no scenes or sights in Europe, with all the veneration they 
receive, could produce. 

LEAVING ALEXANDRIA FOR CAIRO. 

There are three modes of reaching the present capital of 
Egypt : namely, going out to sea, and turning up the Damietta 
or Rosetta branches of the Nile ; by land, on horseback, — a 
tedious, profitless jaunt ; or by the canal, forty miles in length, 
which opens into the Nile at Atfeh, a miserable, dirty Arab 
town. If the traveller does not go to Cairo in the transit 
company's steamer, which runs through the canal, it is neces- 
sary to hire a river-boat, alvvrays lying in the canal, waiting for 
jobs. 

Before closing a bargain, look cautiously, to ascertain whether 
the boat is free from vermin, rats and snakes. In general, one- 
third of the stipulated price is paid down, and the remainder 
at the termination of the trip. The bargain must be written, 
and the reis, or captain, made to sign it with his seal, in dupli- 
cate, each taking a copy, for none of them can read or write. 
All the provisions for daily use must be put on board, together 
with pans, kettles, earthen pots, cooking apparatus, cots, blank- 
ets, sugar, coffee, &c, ; and a regular house-keeping commences 
3# 



30 A PILGRIMAGE TO EGYPT. 

the moment the sail is up. There are dragomen in abundance, 
who contract to go for a daily specific sum, or by the month, to 
be gone as long as desired, — even into Nubia, back across the 
desert, into Palestine, Turkey or Persia. They are up for a 
market, without reference to place or length of the undertaking. 
This is somewhat expensive ; but when two or three gentle- 
men unite in all the expenses, it very materially lightens the 
expense of each. It is best not to contract for the boat further 
than Cairo ; thus an opportunity for testing the boat and crew 
is secured. A contract must mention particularly the number 
of the crew, and that they are to row or tow the boat, when the 
wind fails, a certain number of hours daily. 

Through our dragoman, Hassan, a boat was taken into ser- 
vice, and an agreement made with Reis Abuzed, — a short, 
thick-set, black, flowing-bearded, respectable-appearing Arab, — 
his ten men and a boy, to take us to Cairo. He came to our 
lodgings — near four miles — to talk and smoke the subject 
over ; and we returned the visit, by going to the canal to view 
the boat. It had two small rooms on the deck, a wooden divan 
to put beds on, and a box to kindle a charcoal fire in, forward, 
when any cooking was to be done. He brought down a colonel 
of the army, and his harem, a week or so before. Dividing 
ourselves into three divisions, we forthwith commenced shop- 
ping, to fit up our establishment. 

Having met the Rev. Mr. Holland and Mr. H. A. Warren, 
from Boston, at Rome, and subsequently at Naples, an arrange- 
ment was agreed upon, by which we could travel in the East 
together. For mutual comfort, security and economy, it proved 
to be an agreeable acquaintance ; and it gives me pleasure to 
acknowledge my indebtedness to them for many a pleasant 
day we passed together on the river Nile, and in exploring 



LEVANTn^ES. 33 

the massive and colossal ruins of the temples and catatfombs 
of Ancient Egypt. 

On the morning of our leave-taking, there was a slight rain. 
A hooting, tramping rabble of persons of all colors, all fashions 
of dress, in all the excitement that could move a miscellaneous 
crovv^d of boys, soldiers, idlers and strangers, roused me from 
the WTiting-table, just after daylight. I joined the increasing 
legion, and soon ascertained that a Maltese sailor had commit- 
ted a murder, and the soldiers were carrying him to the lock- 
up. He would then be delivered to the English consul, to 
send away for trial. Being out, it was amusing to gaze upon 
the variety of strange-looking men and wom^en who v/ere pass- 
ing. Very many Levantine females w^ere riding on donkeys, 
astride, enveloped in monstrous black silk cloaks. Their knees 
being raised to a level with the pommel of the saddle, and the 
cloaks immensely inflated by the wind, their appearance, pre- 
ceded by a black slave, cracking a whip to clear the way, was 
indescribably ludicrous. Their faces were covered to the eyes 
with white veils, suspended from the middle of the forehead, 
— a cord coming down on a line with the nose, from a band 
that crosses the head. Some have a series of short brass 
tubes, strung together, constituting a heavy chain, to sustain 
the weight of the veil. 

Levantines are those born in Egypt, or the East, of foreign 
parentage. Many of them are Christians, who conform to 
some of the peculiar institutions of the Mohammedans. Wear- 
ing a veil is a custom as old as the days of Abraham, and, no 
doubt, of a more remote antiquity. Some of the ladies had 
fair complexions ; but a majority were rather sallow, with 
piercing black eyes, short in stature, and fat. Even the black 
female slaves who accompany them in riding and walking 
were veiled in the same manner. It v/as sometimes difficult 



34 A PILGRIMAGE TO EGYPT. 

to determine what the color of the individual was, so closely 
were the corners of the veil drawn down. Little girls — 
ragged, bare-legged, and scarcely covered to hide their naked- 
ness — begin at eight and nine years to resort to the veil, which 
demonstrates the deep and abiding force of the custom. An 
occasional mishap exposes the face, but rarely ; and some, 
indicating a natural coquetry of the sex, raise one side, expos- 
ing one eye, either for a better view for themselves, or for 
exhibiting the antimonial lines of beauty they have made about 
the margins of the eyelids. 

Our purchases being made, and secured in rattan boxes, 
called canteens, with one pine chest, secured by a padlock, 
where our most precious articles were packed, the^whole 
was collected at the hotel. A troop of donkeys had gath- 
ered about the door, as hackmen do where there is to be an 
Irish funeral, in hope of a job. All the knives, spoons, forks, 
pans, &c., were of the rudest, coarsest kind, that, in case 
of loss, there might be no mourning in consequence of their 
value. When they were laden, and the big boxes, pans, mats, 
blankets and overcoats, had been strapped on, we mounted, and 
the cavalcade began to move. Being assured nothing could 
pass out at the gate without a certificate from the consul, pre- 
caution had been taken to procure one, by paying for it ; but 
which, in the end, was of no kind of use whatever. A fero- 
cious-looking Arab, who acts as general guardian, guard of 
honor, and official servant of the consul, under the old name of 
janizary, armed with a long sword, and a pair of pistols stuck 
in a sash that encircled his waist, came up, just as we were 
starting, saying that it would be impossible to pass the luggage 
through without him. We had also paid one dollar apiece for 
a certificate that we were American citizens, which never was 
shown but once, and then treated with contempt, — a perfectly 




FEMALES DRESSED FOR WALKING OR RIDING. Page 31. 



ARAB i'ANATICS. 87 

useless expenditure; — and future visiters can do as they like 
about feeing the American consul-general for worthless papers, 
recollecting that he has a fixed salary of three thousand dollars 
a year from Vfashington. Well, on we went, single file, pass- 
ing near Pompey's Pillar. Mr. Warren carried a bag of copper 
paras, nearly a peck in measure, but of small value. I went 
in advance, while Mr. Holland acted as super^dsor and look- 
out agent for the safety of the goods and chattels. 

Being considerably in advance through the gate, and observ- 
ing a detention, I became anxious, and retraced a few rods, to 
ascertain the difficulty. The sentinels had brought the don- 
keys to for examination. They laughed at the consul's paper, 
and were equally indifferent to the sputtering importance of 
his man of straw with the pistols. A bribe was paid, and the 
loads came on. But next, our official blusterer demanded pay. 
He was indignant at the sum given, and departed in high 
dudgeon. Neither his services or his master's had been of the 
least importance, while for each act of both was a charge. This 
is a specimen of the beginning with American consuls in the 
Orient. No one is ever satisfied in Egypt. Give all that has 
been stipulated, and some are angry because there is no more. 

When all the trumpery had been put on board and stowed, 
lo ! Hassan had not arrived. We were therefore compelled to 
make the best of the disappointment, and retire to our new 
lodgings for the night. The evening was excessively dark; 
but, hearing low, earnest voices, not unlike praying, a few rods 
distant, in a one-story house, in which a faint lamp-light was 
"glimmering through the crevices, I ventured near, to watch 
the movements within. A few pious Arabs, in a state of exalt- 
ation by smoking either strong tobacco or hemp, were making 
a humming wail, bowing and groaning inwardly, with an 
expression of sanctity not very unlike what is sometimes wit- 
4 



38 A PILGRIMAGE TO EGYPT. 

nessed in Methodist meetings. No females participated in the 
devotions, if such they were. 

Bright and early the following morning, Hassan made his 
appearance, in full travelling gear, accompanied by a boy of 
fourteen, Ali, who was to be his assistant. He also brought a 
bright little lad of eight years, his son, of whom he was excess- 
ively fond. He regretted that the child had not been circum- 
cised, — an essential rite of his fathers, which no conscientious 
follower of the prophet ever neglected ; — but he had been 
much from home, and could not attend to it. As it would 
cost considerable to feast his circle of friends, whenever per- 
formed, he was impatiently waiting to collect a sufficient sum 
to defray the expense. Hassan asked for money to send 
back to his family, which was advanced. In the midst of 
pushing off from the bank, up rode a fine, spirited fellow, on a 
smoking donkey, who demanded the clothes of Ali. He was 
his brother, and objected to his taking his best breeches to the 
Thebiad. These were composed of a big white cotton bag, open 
at both ends, held up over the hips by a string, and reach- 
ing down to the knees. A silk scarf v;as bound several times 
round the body, and a calico shirt-bosom, or vest, — I never 
could fairly ascertain which, — buttoned to the throat, with 
little round pea-buttons, completed the dress. We vetoed any 
such proceedings ; if the boy was to go with us, he should be 
decently clad, and no threats would change our purpose. The 
man said, their father being dead, it was his duty to act parent- 
ally ; he only desired to keep the clothing till our safe return. 
A contest of words ensued, but Hassan contrived to settle the 
matter satisfactorily, and the boy, being relieved from the 
apprehension of losing his nether garment, became cheerful 
and active. 

Up came the pin in the bank that held the boat, the sail was 



GREAT EGYPTIAN CANAL. 39 

set, and soon we felt as fine a breeze as though it had been 
bespoken especially for the occasion. It came nearly astern, 
and strongly, so that the canjia ploughed through the canal 
at a rapid rate. 

By taking a position on the top of the cabin, some seven feet 
above the water, where we could climb by making two long 
strides, — the weather being clear, warm and inviting, — we 
obtained a view of both sides of the canal, which was very 
interesting, from the variety of new sights perpetually coming 
into viev/. Lake Mareotis — described by Strabo, which Pliny 
says was thirty miles long — was on the right hand, — a bro^d 
sheet of v/ater. Houses and huts, on either side, were fre- 
quently passed, near the banks, into which we could peep a 
little way, but without discovering anything of a remarkable 
character in the domestic arrangements. 

The canal was named by its projector the Mahmoodeeh, in 
honor of the Sultan of Turkey, Mahmoud II., who w^as on the 
throne when Mohammed Ali completed it. It was dug and 
opened in about one year, by the constant labor of two hun- 
dred and fifty thousand men, tv/enty thousand of whom were 
supposed to have died by being overtasked, and by accidents 
and disease. It is wide enough, in many places, for half a 
dozen boats to pass, without molestation ; but at other points it 
was originally narrow, and is becoming more so by the gradual 
washing and falling in of the unwalled banks. The excavated 
mud is piled up in irregular ridges all the way to Atfeh, forty 
miles. Looking over and beyond, the broad, unfenced, level 
fields are clearly seen, for many miles. Some were flooded, 
others muddy by irrigation ; some are pastured by cattle, driven 
and watched by little Arab boys and girls ; and occasionally 
quite a pretty wooden house comes in for admiration, owned 
by a thrifty Turk ; the upper windows — the sacred apartment 



40 A PILGEIMAGE TO EGYPT. 

of the females — being closely defended by lattice-work. With 
a delightful breeze, long before night we arrived at Atfeh. 
Remains of the old canal of Fooah, which anciently united the 
Nile with Alexandria, were traceable on the route, at several 
points. 

Atfeh, at the upper end of the canal, where it joins the Nile 
by a strong, heavy double lock, is a large mud town, extending 
on both sides of the canal, along its steep banks. One house 
only had glass windows, — belonging to the pasha, built by 
Mohammed Ali, the only person who has accomplished any- 
thing for the improvement of Egypt since the reign of the 
Ptolemies. Boats are made, of a very good quality, in front 
of their dirty homes, of very short pieces of wood, — the car- 
penters squatting on the ground to hew, saw or plane, — the 
custom with all orders of mechanics. These boats were all 
the time coming or going through the locks. Those that 
came down the river were laden with cotton and wheat, in 
bulk ; peas, beans, millet, fowls, eggs, fruit, and whatever else 
they may have that is salable; while those returning were 
filled with lumber, passengers, cotton cloth, packages of goods, 
hardware from Europe, &c. Immense numbers of women and 
children were sitting, sleeping, or wandering about over the 
heaped-up cargoes. One man, perhaps, was bowing himself in 
prayer, towards Mecca ; all were smoking, while the helmsman 
was the only one who seemed to have a care. It is quite com- 
mon to see stout Arabs spinning cotton or wool by twirling a 
hand-spindle; knitting is also one of their feminine employ- 
ments. Far more laborious pursuits are followed by females. 
They are seen carrying mud up from the canal, for building or 
repairing hovels, Vv^hich they fashion with their dirty hands. 
At Atfeh we first saw the business of manufacturing manure, 
by females, in a large way. They collect it where cattle are 



MANNERS AND CUSTOMS OF THE NATIVES. 41 

most abundant, — buffaloes, and perhaps camels, — mix it with 
straw, and, having beaten it into sheets of uniform size, stick 
them to the sides of their hovels to dry, as an article of mer- 
chandise, for which the demand is uniformly active. It is the 
fuel for bakers to heat their ovens, and for cooking generally ; 
— wood and charcoal always bearing a high price in the inte- 
rior. Wood appears to have been scarce in the days of mummy- 
making, from the circumstance that wooden cases by hundreds 
are found manufactured of narrow^ strips of Vv^ood, ingeniously 
dove-tailed together with pins. 

By the wash of the water against the sides of the canal, — 
created in part by the steamer which runs backward and for- 
ward for the Transit Company, — by the natural slides of mud 
piled up on the margin, and the thousands of incidental cir- 
cumstances operating to render shallow the canal, it has very 
considerably narrowed in some places, and filled up in others. 
Three huge steam mud-digging machines are constantly oper- 
ating, to keep it in good condition, by moving to and fro. 
Wherever they happen to be located, the mud-carriers — who 
take the mud from the scow, into which it falls from the scoop- 
ing buckets, to the top of the bank — have their tents, which 
are shabby, comfortless protections against either wind, rain, or 
a scorching sun. 

Many of the boats v/ere raised at their sides with boards 
plastered to each other with a mixture of mud and manure, by 
which, in a cargo that sunk the hull too deeply, the Vv'ater was 
kept from the deck. 

Y/e had discovered, long before leaving the canal, that no 
Arab ever sits in a chair. They squat upon their hams, 
wherever they may be, — in doors or out. It was a novelty 
to view the groups of half-naked, ragged men, women and chil- 
dren, in the passing boats, luxuriating at full length on the 
4^ 



42 A PILGRIMAGE TO EGYPT. 

loose grain in bulk, — invariably squatting, sleeping, smoking, 
laughing or staring. Before reaching Atfeh, for three miles, 
the canal is bordered with noble acacias, bearing some resem- 
blance to apple-trees. Their proximity to the water gives them 
an opportunity of being thoroughly developed. 

The dragoman went ahead, accompanied by my resolute 
companions, for the purpose of having the locks opened, when 
the boat came lip, without delay ; which operation might other- 
wise be postponed by the slowly-moving servants of his highness 
till the next day. Bribes are the " open sesame " in Egypt, as in 
Rome and Naples. No matter what may be proposed, by bid- 
ding high enough, there is always a messenger to go v/nerever 
directed. 

With the American flag flying at the peak, and a small 
douceur in hand, the gates opened like a charm. Just as one 
craft swung round the corner, lengthwise, into the rushing Nile, 
an upset boat, with a turbaned Arab clinging to the wreck, 
screaming loudly for help, came floating rapidly by. Hundreds 
of smokers looked calmly on, without moving a finger to save 
the drowning wretch, till he was nearly out of sight in a bend 
of the rapid stream, when a sail-boat went in pursuit. A row- 
boat passed the poor, helpless fellow, while he was praying 
piteously for assistance, without varying its course, or those in 
it apparently having their bowels of compassion moved in his 
behalf. Having no yawl, we washed our hands of the sin of 
neglect. Night came on fast, and our last view of the shame- 
fully-neglected creature was indistinct. It appeared that he 
must either be carried ultimately out to sea, or be drowned 
before arriving there. 

Made fast to the angle formed between the river and canal, 
we remained all night. A tolerable insight into the construc- 
tion of the town was gained by the detention. The hovels 



ENTRANCE UPON THE NILE. 43 

rarely have more than one room. On one side is a raised 
place, broad and long enough for spreading a mat, where the 
inmates sleep in the clothes they wear by day. The entrance 
is low, obliging them to stoop. Within, they are perfectly 
comfortless, — without furniture, windows, or conveniences. 
Women, children, and earthen jars, are the ordinary contents ; 
while the flat roofs are tenanted by doves, poultry, and dogs. 
Noble, black-bearded men, wearing milk-white turbans, a large 
blue shirt, and barefooted, were frequently seen to enter these 
dirty, dismal, cheerless holes. They had expressive features, 
but no intelligence ; strength, v/ithout knowing how to use it ; 
and poverty, because there is no encouragement for individual 
enterprise. 

Sometimes we had a blast of wind, and then none at all, which 
last obliged the crew to leap on shore with a tow-line with a 
loop, divided at the extremity into as many branches as there 
were men. At their leisure moments, individuals of the crew 
made themselves nice bits of loop-line, to be knotted on the end 
of the tow-rope when they v/ere ordered to pull. We frequently 
passed mud villages as the boat ascended against a strong 
angry current, that brought to mind the Mississippi in its whole 
extent. Among others was the very ancient site of Sais, 
where v/as once a mighty city, and the burying-place of kings, 
— now covered, irregularly, with mud hovels. Mud dwellings 
occurred every few miles on both sides of the turbulent, swiftly- 
flowing Nile, which, at this point, appears much like the Father 
of Waters above and below Lake Pepin. Islands were passed, 
reared by the shifting currents ; but, unlike those in the upper 
Mississippi, which are covered with wood, those on the Nile 
were bare. All the potable water is carried from the river, in 
heavy stone jars, on the heads of females, to each house in the 
village. Early in the morning, Arab girls, of from ten to twenty 



44 A PILGEIMAGE TO EGYPT. 

years, — rarely older, — are seen coming down across the fields, 
generally in groups, for ihe supply of the day. They are 
dark, pretty tall, slender-limbed, with a wildness of expression 
when their faces are seen. Their bosoms and legs are unhesi- 
tatingly considerably exposed ; but their whole effort is to keep 
the face covered. By little and little, .when half a dozen of 
them are rinsing the jugs at a bend in the river, a veil — with 
them, a coarse piece of blue cotton — drops down, or falls to 
one side, being always kept fast by the hand, exposing their 
features. They stand there for gossip, and laugh merrily while 
washing themselves, previously to mounting the water-jars 
upon their heads, — rubbing themselves with the fat, unctuous 
mud, as we do with soap. When filled, not unfrequently, the 
jar is so heavy that the strength of two is required to raise it to 
the head of a third. 

With the exception of a few rats, busy as carpenters under 
our heads, the boat was tolerably comfortable at night. Im- 
mensely large cockroaches would occasionally stride across the 
ceiling of the cabin, as though on a round of inspection. Our 
activity with a cane, and their adroitness in eluding a deadly 
blow, convinced us that their movements were the result of a 
reasoning process, rather than instinct alone. 

Hassan was gone a long Vv^hile to a village bazaar, — a lane, 
lined on both sides by vendors of tobacco, pipes, coarse earthen 
water-filters, vegetables, rice and fruits, — where he purchased 
some butter, which he considered good, that resembled soap- 
grease both in flavor and appearance. All the way from Alex- 
andria, mounds of earth indicated the sites of former towns. 
These must have been an early invention, by the first settlers of 
the Nile vallej^, to keep beyond the reach of periodical inun- 
dations. They are from thirty to sixty, and perhaps some may 
be a hundred feet high. One or two mosques are usually 



ASCENT OF THE NILE. 45 

met with in large villages, — the minarets always of the same 
pattern, slender and tall. The body of a mosque is ordinarily 
square, of one story, with a small entrance-door, and a few small 
windows. There are one, two, and three terraces to each min- 
aret, the shaft becoming smaller above each. A small pear- 
shaped dome, surmounted by a crescent, completes it. Small 
wooden cranes, — or, rather, figure-fours, — from which lights 
are suspended on feast-days and other glorifications, project from 
the roofs, the domes, or caps, of the minarets. At four o'clock, 
precisely, a priest, or, more commonly, a blind man, calls the 
faithful to prayers. 

Tombs of Mohammedan saints are frequently met with. 
When seen at a distance over the broad expanse of intervening 
fields, the effect is fine. They are small square piles of stone, 
laid up in mortar, from ten to thirty feet on a side, surmounted 
by a dome, which is whitewashed. A large part of the modern 
mosques are of brick. They are not unfrequently near ceme- 
teries ; and such, too, is the case in respect to the tombs of 
sheiks and saints. When these last are in burying-grounds, 
it is common for the devout to enter them for prayer. 

As we began to ascend the Nile, our crew exhibited more of 
their true character. At first there was evident restraint upon 
them, from the presence of strangers ; but they finally observed 
a methodical course, that may be calculated upon each return- 
ing day. They prayed, individually, five times a day, with 
their faces towards Mecca. Let what might be going on, 
nothing could divert their solemn attention from the business 
thiy had commenced. They kneeled, and three times touched 
their foreheads to the floor. When one had finished his genu- 
flexions, another commenced ; and sometimes two or three at 
once, if they could be spared from duty. In the very midst of 
a difficulty, m trim.ming the sail, that required his practised 



46 



A PILGRIMAGE TO EGYPT. 



eye, the reis never turned his head towards the fluttering 
sheet till his religious duties had been brought to a deliberate 
close. 

I have often felt reproached, coming from a Christian country 
to a professedly unchristian one, when witnessing the fervent 
piety of those whom we are taught to pity for their profound 
ignorance and spiritual blindness. 




POSTURES OF PRATER. 



While passing a little fleet of boats, made fast to the bank, a 
man of excellent appearance — so far as a turban and a heavy 
black beard impart dignity — ■ was vociferating, with great iirabic 
volubility, while another, with a bit of paper in his hand, m.ade 
a motion, when, instantly, the orator was thrown upon his face 
by an obedient circle of spectators, and there held firmly, till 
eleven blows, severe and terrible, were given with a small rope. 
He screamed in an agony that distressed me, V/hen liberated, 



A DAXCE ON BOARD. 47 

he picked up his tarban, adjusted his disordered long blue shirt, 
and went on board one of the boats. Hassan said the man 
punished was the head of a village, who had been directed to 
have a certain amount of labor performed, somewhere, for the 
pacha, which not having been accomplished when the inspector 
arrived, was the cause of the inhuman punishment to which he 
had been subjected. 

When the tax-gatherer calls for revenue that has been 
assessed, and it is not promptly paid, the delinquent is flogged 
on the spot by the sheik of the village, and subsequently 
imprisoned. For the crime of being too poor, he is flogged but 
once, and incarcerated from one to three months ; or, if recruits 
are needed in the army or navy, he is marched oflf where his 
services are required, and that is the last of him. A discharge 
is out of the question, however long or meritorious may have 
been the career of the impressed subject. In the other case, 
the debtor to the state is flogged at certain intervals of time, 
till the money is received at the treasury, which the relations 
contrive to raise before he is quite killed. 

Much pleasure was manifested, one day, by the crew, on 
account of a favorable breeze that sprang up when they were 
fatigued with a tedious pull at the tow-rope ; and this was shown 
in a native dance near the bow. One of the boatmen — a sour, 
one-eyed fellow — had the reputation of being an excellent 
musician. His name was Mohammed, a patronymic of a large 
proportion of the lower orders in all Mohammedan countries. 
The instrument on v/hich he performed was called a zumarah, 
iPxade by himself, of two parallel pieces of reed, fourteen inches 
long by half an inch in diameter, bound together by twine. 
In the upper end were tw^o vibrating reeds, similar to those 
in a hautboy. On each tube w'ere five finger-holes, side by 
side, which were covered by two finafers of the left hand and 



48 A PILGIIIMAGE TO EGYKT. 

three of the right, while he blew in at the squeaking reeds. 
In order to produce a sound, it required a vast pectoral exertion, 
straining his eyes from their sockets fearfully. The sound was 
shockingly harsh and unmusical. There was no specific air, 
but a discordant tooting, which was keenly relished by the 
excited crew, who clapped their hands in unison, and moved 
their feet by jerks, notwithstanding they were all seated fiat 
on the deck. It was an obscene exhibition, without any shufHe 
of the feet, when one of them rose for the dance. 

We were not many hours in discovering that the Arab boat- 
men are a patient, honest, civil, indefatigable race. When a 
reis, or captain, takes a crew for an up-river voyage, the ordi- 
nary pay is not far from two piastres, or ten cents, a day. A 
pilot — always at the helm, night and day, when the boat is 
moving, acting as sailing-master also — has the wages of a man 
and a half, or fifteen cents per day. Their stock of provisions 
consists of a bag of stale black bread, broken into pieces, and some 
beans, together with extra purchases of a few thin sheets of soft 
bread, baked in hot ashes, procured on shore whenever we 
hauled up for a stop. They had an earthen jar to settle the 
water in, another for boiling their food till it was converted into 
a thick, soft mush, and a single pan to pour it into when ready. 
There was but one wooden spoon among them all. Sometimes 
one had it, and sometimes another. The boy who acted as 
cook stirred the pot with it, and tasted, to ascertain when it was 
soft enough, with the same useful instrument; and thus it was 
always in requisition. There was neither a knife, fork, axe, 
hammer, nail, nor anchor, on board. 

When the wind failed, all hands sprang to the bank with the 
end of the rope, for towing. When necessity obliged us to stop, 
— for there were safe and unsafe places for hauling up for the 
night, -*- a wooden pin was driven into the mud by a big beetle, 



ANOTHER DANCE. . 49 

bound with leather rings to keep it from splitting. Making the 
boat fast to the pin, a watch was set, and we retired. Twice a 
day the men sat round the broad pan of hodge-podge, and washed 
it down, with a capital relish, with Nile water. The reis main- 
tained a show of superiority, by having a mat to sit upon. Each 
man invariably squatted fiat on the deck, the moment he was 
able to do so. The pilot, when at his post, had his food carried 
to him; and the reis usually sat apart from the men, bat not 
alv/ays. He never appeared to have anything to do, and was 
really a supernumerary. Through the aid of Hassan, he man- 
aged to get one pretty good meal out of us daily. With no 
thought for the morrow, he sat through the twelve hours, con- 
templating nothing ; but rose punctually for prayers five times a 
day, — drank strong coffee, thick as Nile mud, without sugar, 
and smoked perpetually. 

Having passed Dessook, another dance was projected, the 
pilot — a respectable, grave man, of forty-five — being the 
principal actor. High expectations of his performance were 
evidently entertained, when he took a position, barefooted, to 
begin. Extra strength was exerted to make sufficient melody, 
while the pilot assumed, as far as possible, the attitudes of a 
dancing girl. He raised first one and then the other hip sur- 
prisingly high, and twisted his spine as though it were made of 
India-rubber. It "soon began to be eminently disgusting, and 
we turned away. His companions, however, expressed their 
extreme gratification by roars of laughter. Even Hassan, 
with his cultivated taste, considered it prodigiously funny. 
Abuzed condescended to withdraw the pipe-stem occasionally, 
and smile graciously. One of the sailors next stripped, put 
on a pointed felt, chocolate-colored cap, and a pair of white 
cotton pantaloons, which some traveller had given him, — a 
garment they rarely wear, — and, taking a rope-whip, flew 
5 



50 A PILGRIMAGE TO EGYPT. 

about with extraordinary dexterity, cracking it violently, and 
thrashing the legs of all who could be reached with it ; and 
then commenced an extemporaneous farce, which consisted of 
two acts. One of his comrades personified a female. There 
was something of a dialogue, — simple, indeed, and quite beneath 
the intelligence of any European child ; thus : " Why don't 
you dance ? " Then the waggish interlocutor snapped the lash 
w^ith power. The reis and crew-spectators were apparently 
all but convulsed with the wit of repartee, and inimitable resem- 
blance of the actor to a woman. Little as we could discover 
of mirth-provoking material in the offensive, nay, disgusting 
jerkings and protrusions of the abdomen, they continued to 
laugh with a vehemence that actually brought tears. An 
Arab woman, dipping water, with her toes in the stream, as the 
boat was passing at a snail pace, noticed what was doing, 
which, to her crude conceptions of wit, was so inimitably fine, 
that she laughed too, heartily, showing a row of white teeth 
that no dentist could match. 

One-eyed people began to thicken, and therefore attracted 
less attention than at first. A large proportion of the laborers 
on the land have lost a fore-finger of the right hand, and not 
unfrequently one or two front teeth of the right side of the 
upper jaw. The deficit in both cases was voluntary, — to be 
unsuitable for the army : — without tlie missing finger, theoreti- 
cally, the trigger of a gun could not be pulled, nor a cartridge- 
cap torn off without teeth. The farmers are exceedingly in- 
dustrious, to all appearance, but conduct their business under 
peculiar disadvantages. Their tools are very miserable, and 
quite unsuitable. The ploughs are wretched ; the team that 
draws them, worse still ; while the principal tool for all 
work is a heavy hoe, shaped like a carpenter's adze, with a 
handle rarely more than two feet long. The operator is com- 



CURRENT or THE NILE. 51 

pelled to stoop almost double to use it, — giving- him precisely 
the attitude of the ancient Eg}^ptians, as portrayed in the tombs 
and sculptured monuments. A team, composed of a cow and 
an ass, or an ox and a camel, made fast to a 3^oke, perfectly 
straight, ten feet apart, appears singularly absurd, dragging a 
plough that is but little superior to a crooked limb of a tree. 
The fields they were preparing for seed were excessively 
muddy, having the appearance of having recently been flooded ; 
consequently, the soil was provokingly adhesive to their feet, and 
clogged the coulter to a degree that required frequent halts to 
clear it. Both sides of the river present machines for raising 
water, of the clumsiest imaginable description. Some are 
large, clumsy wheels, turned by a bullock, and carrying on the 
periphery a chain of earthen jars. On coming up full, the con- 
tents are poured into a mud trench, from whence it runs off 
towards the place to be irrigated. Another method is by the 
common pole and bucket ; a slow and laborious process, and 
excessively severe, where men, under a burning sun, quite 
naked, are drawing up water, for the same object, the whole 
time. 

All my observations, thus far, on the lower Nile, below its 
bifurcation into two branches, prove it to be a rapid, turbid 
river. The banks all the way up to within twenty-five or thirty 
miles of Cairo are nearly perpendicular, — • appearing as though 
cut down with spades. Boats of the largest class glide within 
three feet of them without touching bottom. This indicates a 
deep channel, which, unfortunately, we had not the apparatus 
for sounding. In throwing out a fish-line, heavily leaded, when 
lying by the bank, such was the force of the current, that in a 
twinkling it was floated out to the surface. It could not be 
kept long enough in one place for a fish to nibble. Per- 
haps, however, short turns modified very considerably the 



52 A PILGRIMAGE TO EGYPT. 

momentum ; and upon the opposite side, where this velocity- 
was remarkable, there might have been only a slow, sluggish 
movement. 

At some distance from the river-banks, — often a mile or more, 
— are artificial ridges, or embankments of earth, — upon an 
average, perhaps, ten feet high, — to prevent the swollen river, at 
its annual rise, from flooding the country too extensively, which 
is lower than the banks of the river in many places. Sluices 
are cut through the barriers, commanded by rude gates, through 
which the grounds beyond are irrigated. There are, too, in 
many localities, immense mud-wall enclosures, in which the 
water is fenced in, to be let out, as necessity may require, 
after the fall of the river. One of the prime considerations 
with every inhabitant is to obtain water, and it therefore con- 
stitutes a prominent subject of conversation with laborers, and 
those interested in crops. Whatever there is of prosperity for 
Egypt solely and exclusively depends on that one element. 

We stopped at a mud town for dates, where many large 
boats were taking in cotton. The bazaar was a short, dirty 
street, covered over head with old mats and brush, to exclude 
the sun's rays. Onions, dates, tobacco, and soft, pancake 
sheets of bread, eggs and melons, were the principal articles 
of traffic, — the sellers all sitting by their effects, cross-legged, 
gravely smoking, while waiting for customers. The town was ♦ 
densely stocked with very common people ; and the females 
lounging round their huts, sitting in the shade of a rickety 
wall, or carrying water, were poorly clad in a single loose 
blue garment, and singularly tattooed on their chins. From 
the margin of the under lip to the under side of the chin, the 
soot of the castor-bean, or India ink, had been so freely pricked 
in, as to resemble a piece of blue ribbon, an inch in width. On 



/- / 





TATTOOED GIRL. Page 52. 



ANCIENT EGYPTIANS. 55 

the arms of some of them queer devices were drawn, with the 
same never-washout material. 

We were constantly passing boats of all dimensions, 
crowded to their utmost capacity with men, women, children, 
hens, turkeys, geese, doves and donkeys. On some of the 
grain-boats, lots of half-naked persons were seen dozing under 
the protection of coarse straw mats. When we came to a cut 
in the river-bank, to let the water off laterally, onr bronzed- 
colored fresh-water sailors stripped off their only covering, 
which they balanced on their heads, and fearlessly plunged in 
with the end of the tow-line, swam or waded across, and, on 
coming out on the opposite side, tugged away again. 

The more I analyzed their figures, and their positions in the 
various labors in which the people are engaged, the more 
forcibly was I struck with the resemblance of these long, 
slender-limbed natives, to the attitudes of the ancient Egyp- 
tians, pictured on mummy-cases, and in the tom.bs. All they 
require is a wig, to be identically like them. It is a modern 
discovery, that those who were preserved by embalming, perhaps 
by millions, in the mummy-pits, actually wore artificial hair. 
Their own was shorn off, no doubt, precisely as it is now uni- 
versally ~ practised throughout all Egypt. This explains the 
clumsy, ungainly appearance of their heads, saturated and 
betangled with bituminous compounds. Wherever an attempt 
was made, by the artists of three, four, and I know not but 
more thousands of years ago, to represent an Egj^ptian, — 
whether -king, priest or peasant, — the hair is always the same 
mass of heav^^ locks, matted down by the side of the ears and 
back of the neck. Females escaped the expense and hideous 
appearance of wigs, and wore their own hair, in whatever man- 
ner they chose. To miy apprehension, if the turban were taken 
away, the ordinary dress of the common people does not differ 



56 A PILGRIMAGE TO EGYPT. 

essentially, and their manners deviate but slightly, from those 
who occupied the lands in the days of the Pharaohs. 

There are no farm-houses, insulated, or in clusters ; the 
inhabitants of a district invariably huddle together on the 
old mounds, which are just high enough to keep them from 
being drowned. There would be no safety in being the ten- 
ant of a lone residence, since the prowling wanderers of the 
deserts would assuredly lay them under contribution at an 
unexpected moment. Besides, were a house built anywhere 
in a field, it would certainly be swept away ; and, if carried 
far enough back from the river to be beyond the reach of the 
impetuous stream, it would necessarily be placed on the edge 
of the desert, exposed to the marauding attacks of men, wild, 
ferocious and ungovernable. 

All the mounds appear to be old. No new ones are con- 
structed ; nor is there any necessity of doing so, since there is 
room in abundance for a vast increase of population on those 
artificial hill-tops. 

Near the brink of the river, still further onward towards the 
capital, I saw a camel and a bufialo yoked together, ploughing. 
It was a supremely awkward team. In Belgium it is no 
uncommon sight for two cows to draw by their horns ; or, in 
Switzerland, an ass and cow to be harnessed together ; but this 
comical combination of brute strength of the camel and buffalo 
was extremely ludicrous. 

A pole full twelve feet long was laid across their necks, — 
the animals being all of nine feet apart ; in the middle, a palm- 
leaf rope was made fast, attached to an apology for a plough. 
Farmers in any agricultural section of the United States would 
be astonished, were they present, to see how fine a furrow can 
be turned with such a strangely-crooked stick, — nearly equal 
to those made by a patent plough. The surface of the arable 



ASCENT OP THE NILE. 57 

land was hard and sun-baked, where the water was not par- 
tially covering it, and not light or mellow. Where crops were 
growing, especially Indian corn, the water stood in sheets, 
which turned the soil into a soft adhesive mud, in which the 
laborer sunk up to his ankles. 

At another point on the east side of the river, still proceeding 
slowly onward, we made a brief stop close to a town, where was 
a perfect jam of naked children and vociferating women, urging 
the sale of their soft hot bread, by the side of piles of coarse 
pottery, such as pans, water-filters and other kinds of dishes, of 
a primitive character. On leaving, we next passed long fields 
of corn, millet, yams and other coarse vegetables. Watering 
machines became plenty, at shorter intervals, turned both by 
oxen and men. The well-pole system, with the roughest, 
poorest combination of apparatus imaginable, must be a labori- 
ous mode of obtaining water. The bucket was either a basket, 
a bit of matting gathered in, or a piece of skin, from which 
half the water spilled out before it was upset into the mud- 
trough. All along on the tops of the houses, in another vil- 
lage, there were literally towers of dung-cakes, the size of 
ordinary dining-plates, drying for future use or sale. They 
Vv^ere stocks of fuel. Repeatedly we passed herds of bufialoes 
enjoying a bath in the Nile, — every part of their bodies but 
their nostrils being concealed under water. Some of them 
were wise in keeping their eyes above the surface, as sentinels 
for their careless or more luxurious friends. They called up 
the idea of the hippopotami, which may yet be mxet with in the 
upper regions of Nubia ; and with respect to color, a dead 
leaden hue, it is quite like that of the river horse, one of which 
I saw in London, — the first and only one ever brought alive 
to Europe. The frequent repetition of this cooling process of 
the buffaloes and other cattle, recalled Pharaoh's dream of the 



58 A PILGKIMAGE TO EGYPT. 

lean and tlie fat kine that came up. No doubt, in his day, the 
ancestors of these very domesticated animals bathed precisely 
in the same manner, and, perhaps, near where the monarch, in 
the unquiet slumbers of the night, imagined he saw them come 
up out of the water; for this was not very far from Sais, the 
great city and burial-place of the ancient kings of Egypt. 

At four o'clock in the afternoon of the day, — the date is not 
essential, — we came in sight of two of the great pyramids of 
Geezeh. Had not the pilot informed us v/hat they were, they 
would have been taken for stacks of grain, as they were not 
expected, and, withal, were so small — owing to the distance 
— that it could hardly be credited they were the mighty mon- 
uments of which the world had been ringing thousands of 



years. I was exceedingly disappointed at their diminished 
altitude. Still, although at many miles' distance, Hassan said 
the boat might reach Boulac by nine o'clock in the evening, if 
a good strong wind should spring into the sail. 

The capricious and feeble winds wholly gave out before the 
longed-for hour, which obliged the crew to tug at the tow-line 
till nearly ten o'clock, when the reis ordered the boat to be 
secured to the bank, where v/e laid till just before morning. 



HASSAN ISjIEME. 59 

The sun rose in resplendent beauty, showing the glory of God 
in a way to impress even a Moslem mind with sentiments of 
devotional admiration. No wonder there were sun-worship- 
pers, on that side of the globe, in the early history of our race, 
if its brilliant rays darted off with the same inimitable display 
of golden radiance that characterizes its rising and setting in 
this old age of the world ! 

For fear of contracting or developing ophthalmia, — the 
dreaded evil, of universal prevalence in Egypt, — we avoided 
reading much in the evening. Should a dryness and smarting 
be felt in the organs of vision, or their appendages, a frequent 
dashing of cold water upon them affords permanent, and some- 
times quite speedy, relief. Those who may follow on the 
same track, and who are consequently liable to the same kind 
of evils, in the form of diseases only slight at the worst, are 
cautioned not to fly instantly to medicine for every trifling 
ache or soreness they may discover. Above all, never resort 
to eye-waters which may have been recommended, without 
reference to the form of inflammation that may exist. An 
unremitting application of cold water, by laying saturated 
pledgets over the orbits, is generally successful in subduing it. 

There was a period when our movement up stream was so 
very slow, and our eagerness to be at the pyramids — the won- 
der of wonders, which occupied my thoughts in the comer, in 
my boyhood — so intense, that the remaining stock of patience 
waxed low, and, by way of pastime, Hassan Ismeme, the drag- 
oman, was called aft to relate his adventures, or, rather, to 
relate where he had been, — his calling being that of a guide 
in the East. Had any person, possessing the faculty of ready 
expression, seen but half that had greeted Hassan's eyes, he 
would have been the author of thrilling octavos. I scarcely 
know where he had not been. He spoke Arabic, his vernacu- 



60 A PILGRIMAGE TO EGYPT. 

lar, fluently, of course ; English he was very tolerable in ; and 
then there were certain Nubian or up-river dialects at his 
tongue's end. He was a clever fellow, — dressy, had a wife at 
Alexandria, as before mentioned, and another at Luxor, directly 
opposite Thebes ; for the necessities of both we advanced him 
money. He said frankly that he liked the Alexandrian one 
best of the two. Had we gone to Dongola, a relay of wives 
might have been stationed all the way. One of his wives had 
a son, and the other a daughter ; but the mother of the boy 
was a jewel, as all women are who have the good fortune to 
have a male child, in all parts of the Orient. His leading 
ambition was to go to Mecca, that he might have the honor 
which is conceded to one who has walked seven times round 
the tomb of the prophet. Nothing but his limited circum- 
stances, he said, prevented him from going ; " but, please 
God," he continued, " I hope to get there yet." I offered to 
take him there, provided he would insure me a safe trip. He 
immediately raised an objection to the proposition, by saying 
that the pilgrimage would not be efficacious to him were it 
made by a Moslem in the capacity of a servant; he must 
approach the Caaba in the dignity of a gentleman, or not at all. 
Further, he observed, it would be attended with too much haz- 
ard to a Christian, for were he detected in gratifying an impi- 
ous curiosity, his fate would be inevitably sealed. One other 
pious aspiration — associated, in his mind, with the idea of 
acceptable service to the Deity, and. in accordance with the 
usages of society — was the circumcision of his son, who, as 
previously related, was about eight years old, and still remained 
without the mark of affiliation into the brotherhood of true 
believers. 

The boat proved to be so comfortable, that we entertained 



BRIDGE ACROSS THE LOWER NILE. 61 

the idea of bargainiDg for it to ascend the river as far as it 
might be an object to proceed. 

Discovering two chickens, bound together by the legs, under 
deck, their pitiable condition led me to plead for their libera- 
tion with those who were owners with, me in the joint-stock 
company. On loosing the cord, it was obvious that the liga- 
ture had completely paralyzed a leg of each. A course of sur- 
gical treatment was forthwith commenced, the results of which 
were particularly gratifying to a practitioner without business. 
Once or twice, the flexor muscles refusing to act, it was neces- 
sary, in the evening, to assist one of them to re-roost, as the 
brisk, bustling fellow — a cock — occasionally tumbled off. 
Matters were progressing favorably for his recover}^, and exhil- 
arating to the vanity of the operator, wiien a sad event occurred. 
My pleasure in the daily improvement of the little feathered 
invalids was sincere. To my consternation, on sitting down 
to the dinner-table, one day, both my patients were taken, 
smoking hot, from a pot ! It was a gratification, however, — 
they were so abominably tough, — that only one of them had 
his bones picked by the company. 

We were visibly nearing the pyramids, — they were said 
to be only nine miles distant, — w'hen the boat came up to the 
barrage, or bridge across the Nile. It is a beautiful struc- 
ture, built by a French engineer, where the channel is both 
deep and intensely rapid. The arches are of large, heavy 
brick, neatly turned, the feet of v/hich stand in iron boxes, 
which were sunk thirty feet in the mud, below the water, before 
striking a hard bottom^. From the foundation to the top of the 
arch is ninety feet. A smaller bridge is carried in the same 
manner over the Damietta branch, near by, to the eastward of 
this curious piece of staunch mechanism. I examined a mon- 
strous diving-bell, in which sixty men w'ere lowered down 
6 



62 A PILGRIMAGE TO EGYPT. 

together, to do the subaquatic masonry. Pile-driving machines, 
mud-digging apparatus, — worked by steam, — and machinery 
of various kinds, suitable for carrying on a heavy business, 
were lying at different points. There were great mounds of 
stone, bricks, timber, and other materials; and laborers, soldiers, 
carts, horses, boats, mules and slaves, in abundance, which 
gave an air of activity, for miles around. Six years have 
elapsed since the undertaking was commenced, by direction of 
the late Mohammed Ali. 

Above the bridge, on either side, where the abutments are 
erected in an alluvial foundation, the banks are very securely 
paved with flat stones and brick, cemented together, to prevent 
the action of the water from washing away the pier-heads. 
Large gates are to be placed between the arches, which, on 
being closed, will instantly dam up the river, and it will conse- 
quently set back, and thus flood an immense expanse of coun- 
try. By closing the gates on both river branches, no water 
could pass down the channel, till a perfect lake is formed. A 
gigantic scheme of irrigation was contemplated by this plan, 
besides having it always within the power of the government 
to fill the great reservoirs for local supply, remote from tho 
river. Over the bridge a railroad track was contemplated. 
This is believed to be the first bridge ever attempted on the 
lower Nile. So immensely costly must have been the enter- 
prise thus far, that it indicates far more ample resources 
than it was previously supposed could have been at the com- 
mand of the old pasha. In the course of my investigations, 
while walking about the bridge, an engineer from England, 
who was attached to the monster diving-bell, furnished some 
statistical information in relation to the views and intentions 
of the originator of the plan, whose energy gave an impulse 



BRIDGE ACROSS THE NILE. 63 

to every enterprise he undertook ; but fears are now entertained 
that it will never be completed. Only a few arches more are 
to be constructed, to give a clear, safe road from one side of 
the river to the other. At present it is in no way serviceable, 
either for travel or as a dam. When my survey was insti- 
tuted, — that is, when the following items were gathered, — 
the Nile had fallen nearly to its lowest level, leaving a depth 
of thirty feet of water, and of soft mud below, thirty more. 
The length of the piers is ninety feet, thirty of which are above 
the surface. In 1849 there were twenty-five thousand men 
employed on it; but, towards the dose of 1850, the number 
was reduced to two thousand, in consequence of a want of 
means. Every three months the governor of a district was 
called upon for a definite number of villagers for this station ; 
they were promiscuously impressed, and sent on. Their daily 
pay was equal to seven cents only, and they were obliged to 
find their own food as they could. It is a cruel service ; and 
the men are neither fitted by knowledge or capacity for con- 
ducting a business in which they have had no experience. 
They are reluctant servitors; and desertions, theft, — to sat- 
isfy the appetite, — and the hardships, provocations and severe 
treatment they are uninterruptedly receiving, rendered it neces- 
sary to have discipline established and order maintained. 
Besides a patrol guard, a police court was organized, with a 
judge who comprehended his master's will. That tribunal is ■ 
lodged in a corner of the arsenal, at the east end of the bridge. 
Blows settle all difficulties ; and the bastinado is superior to an 
army, according to the theory of the times, in that despotism. 
Tv/o witnesses are sufficient to sustain a charge, and, from 
some subsequent observations, it appeared that one would 
answer. On all simple, trivial affairs, fifty lashes are meted 
out to an adult, and twenty-five to a boy, and instantly, too. 



64 A PILGRIMAGE TO EGYPT. 

The Englishman said a perpetual flogging was going on every 
day but Friday, — the Mohammedan Sabbath. The chief 
engineer — a Frenchman — receives a salary of twenty-five 
purses a mionth, — equal to one hundred and twenty-five 
pounds sterling; the judge, twelve pounds per month, for keep- 
ing the laborers well subdued by the courbash, or raw hide of 
the hippopotamus ; and thus the bridge is building, and thus it 
will remain, till the gates are shut for the first time, when it 
will keel over before the flood. 

While gazing and reconnoitring the ground round about 
these gigantic works, a ragged black fellow, half bare above his 
hips, and all below, ordered the boat from the pin to which it 
was fast in the mud, waiting for a wind sufiiciently strong to 
waft us through the narrow passage between the piers of the 
bridge, where the current, from being compressed, ran furi- 
ously. He announced himself, with an air of consequence, 
the pasha's guard. I pointed to the stars and stripes at the 
peak, and told him to touch the line upon his peril. The reis 
felt some anxiety, and even Hassan exhibited a shade of cow- 
ardice, at the name of the ruler of the destinies of Egypt. 
After a monkey display of oratorical wrath, referring frequently 
to the authority with which he was invested, he quietly inti- 
mated that a present Vould make all right, although the law 
was broken. We gave him nothing, but threatened to crack 
his bones if he did not keep at a respectful distance. Soon 
after this tea-pot tempest, the wind came in earnest; the boat 
shot through, and the pyramids loomed up to the heavens ; the 
minarets of Cairo came into view, and the encouragement was 
held out of reaching Boulac, the port of the city, by sundown. 



CAIRO. 65 



CAIEO. 



Notwithstanding our expectations, we did not fairly step on 
shore at Boulac till near midnight, and it was necessary to 
remain on board, till the following morning. The trunks being 
lashed on the backs of donkeys, and a set being procured for 
ourselves to ride, — the distance being all of two miles, — 
we moved off from the din of noise, braying of asses, growl of 
camels, dust, and the rabble of men, women and children. 
There was some examination of luggage, or a fee to pay, to 
exempt it from that ordeal, so detrimental to reserved linen. 
Not a spire of grass was anywhere recognized. A wide road, 
bordered by acacias, lined the way. At the entrance-gate 
there was some form to comply with, not remembered, in com- 
bination with those moving panoramic displays of human 
beings, in new attitudes and dresses, on the route to the great 
Arab city. 

Somewhere on the Cairo side of the Nile, tradition says the 
infant Moses was picked up, in his bulrush float, by Pharaoh's 
daughter. As for defining the exact locality, the attempt would 
be ridiculous. "When fairly within the city, w^e found a small 
hotel, centrally placed, near the focus of business, close to the 
post-office, from whence explorations were commenced. 

Cairo, the capital of Egypt, is comparatively modern, called 
by the inhabitants Mus-r. It was commenced in the year 973, 
and, notwithstanding the singular changes it has passed through, 
ill the vicissitudes of war, intestine commotions, rebellions, fire 
and sword, it has survived them all, and may be considered a 
great city. About four miles above, on the same side of the 
river, are heaps of broken brick, stone, mortar, pottery, — the 
refuse of ages, — piled up to a hundred feet, perhaps, in sev- 
eral places, extending vvridely ; and near the v\^ater, for more 
6# 



66 A PILGRIMAGE TO EGYPT. 

than half a mile, are houses of all patterns, and a ferry. These 
indicate the site of Fostat, once the capital, now called Old 
Cairo. A wall of considerable strength encircles the new city, 
but when built is not material. The houses are of wood, brick 
and stone, carried up two and three stories, on streets which 
are, in a majority of cases, not over five feet wide. Each story 
juts out beyond the one beneath it, so that the dwellings on 
opposite sides nearly meet. One might cross from a second 
story to an opposite window. The houses have a miserably 
poor, dingy, antique appearance, and no doubt half of them, at 
least, were constructed out of old materials, that have been in 
temples or houses twenty times before. Occasionally, a toler- 
ably good house is noticed. There are no chimneys, and all 
the*windows in the second story are usually covered with fine 
lattice frames. Those within can look out, but those in the 
street cannot peer in. Wherever such barricaded windows are, 
there is the harem ; they are numerous, too. 

There are reputed to be four hundred mosques. The min- 
arets are not beautiful, but mostly very miserable specimens of 
brick masonry, poorly painted. A majority of the mosques 
are in a ruinous condition, — the steps fallen partly down, glass 
broken, doors settled, &c. I visited several, and invariably 
found them of the poorest and shabbiest of all religious edifices 
seen in other countries. Some have a plain, movable pulpit, 
others none at all. Vf hile some of them are quite long, the)^ 
have no architectural proportions. None of them equal in size 
ordinary country churches with us. Usually there is a yard, 
enclosed by a high wall, in the centre of which is a tank of 
water, two, three, nr four feet high, and about ten feet across. 
The water is supplied by artificial means. When worshippers 
are about entering for their devotions, they step up on the 
brim of the tank, and, squatting on their haunches, wet the 



Joseph's well. 67 

tips of their ears, wash their foreheads, — cautiously avoiding 
the eyes, — rinse the mouth, and then they are ready to enter. 

Pious Moslem citizens think to purchase heaven by the 
same course pursued with us ; — by giving what they can no 
longer use to the church. Water being the universal element, 
on which all life and health depends in Egypt, it engrosses the 
thoughts of those particularly who seek opportunities for mani- 
festing their benevolence, — a quality in high estimation among 
Mohammedans; and they make endowments for keeping a 
tank or fountain, always filled, in a mosque, for the use of all 
Moslems. 

In passing by a mosque, it is common to see one or two 
brass tubes projecting an inch or two, on a level with the 
mouth of persons of medium height. By sucking at these, a 
draught is raised. These are the boasted fountains some 
travellers have admired. There are no fountains in the streets, 
or anywhere else within the walls, except wells, out of which 
the water is raised by a wheel, turned by a bullock. The city 
does not stand so high as to prevent reaching water that perco- 
lates from the river, through the earth. Several wells are on 
the lower or western margin of the city, towards the river ; and 
from them the gardens are supplied. Joseph's Well, at the 
citadel, cut through solid rock to the depth of two hundred and 
sixty feet, is conceived to have been executed by the ancient 
Egyptians. It is one of the curiosities of the town, and was 
accidentally discovered, — filled with sand, — in 1171, by 
Saladin, of bloody memory. There is an inclined plane wind- 
ing down, like a spiral staircase, all the way. Horses and 
oxen can be driven up or down. I descended as far as curios- 
ity promipted. An ox was down more than one hundred and 
fifty feet, turning a wheel to raise the contents, and at the top 
was another. The supply is thought to come by an aqueduct 



68 A PILGRIMAGE TO EGYPT. 

stretching to the river, near old Cairo, where it is raised up 
there, from the flowing stream, by bullocks. 

There is not a drop of water in Cairo, not raised, either 
directly or indirectly, from the river. The wheels, covered with 
earthen pots tied to ropes, descending and coming full, are 
numerous. Donkeys, in marvellous numbers, — in fact, in 
droves, — are all the while going to Boulac, and returning with 
goat-skins filled with the precious beverage. The demands of 
the population for water, in the few rude arts, for animals and 
irrigation, require an incessant activity to meet the ordinary 
consumption. There is not a handsome fountain, nor one with 
running water, in Cairo, to my knowledge. 

One wide street has been commenced ; and a cutting, slashing 
business it has been, through every dwelling or estate on the 
line. This will ultimately be a decent road, rather too narrow, 
through which the viceroy may drive his carriage. No remon- 
strance would prevail against any measure he chose to carry, 
since his will is sovereign, being an unlimited despot, brooking 
no contradictions. He owns the land, and the people are simply 
tenants at will. All the streets are delightfully clean. I 
rarely ever detected a nuisance of any magnitude in any of 
them. At the extremity of each is a heavy wooden gate, sus- 
pended on clumsy hinges, driven all over with nails, which is 
closed soon after dark. Thus each street is perfectly insulated, 
so far as intercourse is concerned, at nightfall. Even the out* 
side wall gates are of wood, protected in the same manner, and 
are not so ponderous but that a strong man might walk off with 
one of them on his shoulder, as Samson did with the gates of 
Gaza, — a feat that loses a little of its miraculous character on 
seeing what kind of gates are now in use, and probably were in 
his day. 

A few coaches are in use by the principal leading government 



CAIRO. 69 

men attached to the court of the pasha. They can drive off 
in some of the wide roads Mohammed Ali constructed, towards 
the palace of Shoobra, and over the great barren plains to the 
north, facing the sand-swells behind the city. 

Cairo is an irregular congregation of mosques, large and 
small edifices of all shapes and descriptions, inhabited by nobody 
knows who. It is in the occupancy of Arabs, Turks, Jews, 
Copts and Europeans, interspersed among whom are Berbers, 
Nubians, Abyssinians, and representatives of very distant Afri- 
can tribes. It is understood that the former have sections by 
themselves, asihe Jews' quarter, Copts' quarter, &c. Europe- 
ans begin to exert an influence over all the others, and are fast 
modifying them, without meddling with their peculiar institu- 
tions. Wherever foreigners are, the houses and shops have 
comforts and conveniences combined; and their manner of 
building, doing business, &c., will, at a future day, change the 
present aspect of Cairo. There is a custom, or law, that hud- 
dles those of a trade together ; which may have been brought 
about by the determination of some ancient ruler. All the 
blacksmiths are near each other, and so of other mechanics. 
The pipe-makers concentrate in a similar manner ; and there 
are sections where tailors are in the ascendant. The munici- 
pal government is simple and efficient, and life and property 
are as secure there as in any place in Christendom. As the 
viceroy resides in and near Cairo, his presence has an obvious 
influence in the preservation of order, in a population of several 
hundred thousand, where it is clearly understood that an infrac- 
tion of a single regulation he has established would be instantly 
visited by a tremendous punishment, from which none are 
exempt but those under the protection of foreign consuls. 
Under the governor is a military force, scattered over the city, 
in barracks. The soldiers are on duty with loaded guns, espe- 



70 A PILGRIMAGE TO EGYPT. 

cially at night, at all the gates, round all the public buildings, 
at the treasury, mint, palaces, and citadel, overlooking the city, 
and wherever it is possible their services might be wanted. I 
have been in no town or city so remarkably quiet, and where 
all you meet were so universally civil. 

One week, constantly devoted to sight-seeing, is quite suffi- 
cient for Cairo. I began with the citadel, — an irregular, half- 
strong and shabby fortress, at the east of the town, elevated on 
the rocks, but commanded by still higher cliffs beyond. There 
was the spot where the late pasha succeeded in collecting 
all the Beys, or Mameluke governors, whom he ferociously 
slaughtered, and thus gained the sovereignty of Egypt. One 
only was saved, by leaping his horse over a low wall, to a 
frightful descent of one hundred feet below. By looking over 
the dizzy height, I realized the dreadful chance there was for 
life, in falling such a distance, on the back of a horse, to the 
roof of a small house. The obedient animal was dashed into 
jelly, but the master made his escape, and lived many years 
after. This slaughter has been repeatedly cited as an evidence 
of the cruelty, love of blood and carnage, of Mohammed Ali. 
They had been plotting for his life, and no effort had been 
spared which their cunning could devise, to compass their dar- 
ling object, on the success of which depended their own secur- 
ity and the maintenance of their authority. He outwitted 
them, established a throne, and raised Egypt from its national 
degradation, to a position unexpected and surprising, in a com- 
paratively short period, through the indomitable energy of his 
own restless mind. Any statesman or civilian would have been 
justified in pursuing the same policy. Its atrocity grew out of 
the impossibility of apprehending his enemies, and disposing of 
them by milder means. Mohammed Ali is not appreciated, 
nor his extraordinary abilities acknowledged. Those who could 



THE NEW MOSQUE. 71 

neither control him, circumvent his plans, nor comprehend his 
policy, vilified his name, and held him up as a monster in 
human form. Under all the embarrassments consequent upon 
neither reading- or writing, — with no education that gave him 
an insight into the institutions of Christian countries, beyond 
the discovery that they were strong and Turkey was weak, and 
even rotten at its vitals, — he commenced a revolution, with 
barbarians and Moslem fanatics, which was without a parallel 
in history ; achieved the purpose he contemplated ; and, had it 
not been for the interference of European powers, he would 
have subverted the Ottoman empire, and seated himself upon 
the divan of his royal master in Constantinople. 

A new, and, for modern Egypt, a magnificent mosque, is 
drawing towards completion, near the citadel, in which the 
remains of the regenerator repose. When I entered it, the car- 
penters, masons, painters, &c., were driving on the work rapidly. 
In the south corner there was a space of twelve feet square, 
railed off with simple pine strips, nailed to four pieces of joist, 
to keep visiters from profaning the sarcophagus of the old hero, 
whose body is there enclosed, to be more magnificently disposed 
of when the edifice — erected by funds which he set apart for 
the object — is in readiness. Even the case of the coffin looked 
like a mere pine box, three feet wide by five high, brought into 
the form of the ridge-pole of a house. Within that there was, 
probably, a leaden coffin of a costly kind. Over the whole, 
cashmere shawls were carelessly thrown. Within a couple of 
yards, common hearth-rugs were promiscuously laid upon the 
rough floor, on which a number of devout Mussulmans were 
groaning, praying, rolling their eyes towards the skies, and 
see-sawing, as they squatted on the mats, as if oppressed with 
profound grief. We were assured that they were hired to pray 



72 A PILGRIMAGE TO EGYPT. 

for the quiet of the soul of his late highness ; and that would 
account for their being always at the work whenever we called. 

The police of the city of Cairo do not appear savage or reck- 
less ; on the contrary, they are individually civil. Nor were 
they harsh to those under arrest. My lodgings being near the 
treasury, I observed that after the little gate at the end of the 
short lane was shut, they spread their mats, and, for aught I 
know, had a sound night's sleep. 

A sheik, or local magistrate, is made responsible for the 
peace and respectability of the immediate neighborhood under 
his care. If he hears or sees any unusual movement, he forth- 
with inquires into it, and takes measures accordingly. The 
population is^assumed to be two hundred and forty thousand, 
and the whole of Egypt as less than two millions. In Egyptian 
times of prosperity, there was probably a population of about 
seven millions ; and the land is capable of sustaining, bounti- 
fully, eight millions. Yet all these human beings, of diversi- 
fied characters and blood, strangely brought in contact,— 
controlled by religious prejudices, and always influenced by 
selfish desires, — are governed, not only in Cairo, but through- 
out all Egypt, by the simplest legal machinery ever put in 
motion. Fear restrains ; but neither love, respect, or national 
glory, prompts any one to be an exemplary citizen. They will 
overreach each other in barter trades, if they can ; and Jews and 
Christians are fair game, under all circumstances. Yet they 
are proverbially honest when property is confided to their care, 
and hospitable to the last crust. 

Through the day there is quite enough that is new to keep 
the tourist occupied ; but when the shades of night come over 
the town, the hours pass off' heavily. There are but few 
amusements for Europeans, and none at all for the natives. 
As they have no literary resources, seldom play at games of 



DOGS. 



73 



chance, neither cultivate music nor enjoy social domestic inter- 
change of conversation, if awake, the night must drag slowly 
on. Like fowls, they retire early. Houses of the common 
people rarely have the show of a light. If they go into the 
streets, each carries a paper lantern. It shows him a safe place 
for his feet, while it indicates an honest purpose to the street 
watch ; and, better still, keeps the dogs at bay. Dogs are one 
of the modern plagues of Egypt ; and it is possible they always 
have been, through all the phases of its eventful history. They 
abound in towns and villages to a frightful extent. They com- 
mence barking and fighting among themselves as soon as it is 
dark ; and many a dead carcass of a recently-slaughtered one 
may be seen on the mounds, by daylight. I have seen them 
when so hoarse, by incessant barking, that they could make no 
sound whatever, although going through the show of howling. 
They have certain districts, in all large dog communities, 
appropriated to a certain pack of friends, and death to the 
intruder follows. It is dangerous, on account of these fero- 




^rvT^J^v^ 



cious, half-starved creatures, to stir out at night without a 
lantern. They are without owners, yet they are about every 
house, and on the tops of them, sleeping and sunning through 
the day. At Geezeh, where droves of cattle, from Dongola, 
wait for purchasers, day after day, several bullocks are usually 
7 



74 A PILGRIMAGE TO EGYPT. 

found dead every morning, and the dogs prowl about the herd 
in expectancy. When a carcass is given them, it is torn to 
pieces with incredible dispatch. They are of a dirty yellow, 
not much larger than foxes, with the savage appearance of 
wolves. 

Mechanics do not work in the evening, as with us, in the 
winter months. On the other hand, they rise very early. At 
four o'clock, a simultaneous call to prayers, from four hundred 
minarets, in the stillness of opening morning, in perfect unison, 
strikes the ear with the sweetness of a single silvery-toned bell; 
and away move the faithful followers of the prophet, to bow, 
touch the earth with their foreheads, and to deprecate their sins. 

On a certain occasion, myself and companions were invited 
to dine with Dr. Abbott, an English physician, settled in 
Cairo, at six in the evening. The hour had passed when the 
host came into the apartment, — where w^e had been some time, 
waiting his return, — apologizing for the apparent incivility of 
not being in to receive us ; but said, in extenuation, he had 
been to the proper authorities to obtain permission for us to 
pass through the gates to our lodgings after nine o'clock, but 
without success. Consequently, the dinner was rather hurried. 
We sat upon cushions on the floor, at a round metallic table, a 
foot high, on which one dish was brought at a time, by the 
servant. Neither knives, forks nor spoons, were provided. 
With our fingers we plunged into the provisions, and, dripping 
and hot, carried the morsels to the mouth. We could not 
manage to wisp up a sop as adroitly as one who had been in 
practice twenty years. Servants stood behind us with long- 
necked ewers ; and when they poured the water out, it was 
caught in brass basins somewhat resembling an inverted cul- 
lender. Our watches finally startled us with the position of 
their hands near the figure nine ; so we hurried out, quite uncer- 



STREETS AND BAZAARS. 75 

emoniously, and mounted the waiting donkeys, which were urged 
to their utmost speed by their supple drivers. In spite of our 
best efforts, — although their little feet moved as fast as drum- 
sticks, — the dreaded gate was closed. The doctor's servant 
accompanied us with a lantern, and, discovering our dilemma, 
cried out lustily that the hakeem must pass through. Fortun- 
ately, it was true that one of the party was a doctor. The 
guard, associating the rascal's master with a hakeem, drew the 
heavy bolt, pushed the door ajar, and away we went, at still 
greater speed. Unfortunately, my animal stumbled, and threw 
me directly over his head, and came rolling upon me himself. 
The bruise was no joke, to say nothing of the fright. How- 
ever, we got home safely. And this illustrates a social even- 
ing with Christians in Cairo. 

All the streets are irregular, dark alleys, with a very few 
exceptions, never lighted by lamps. It was never in my power 
to find the way more than a few rods, such was the irregularity 
of the windings, and the difficulty of seeing a prominent mark 
of any kind. In attempting to pursue a direct line, the failure 
was signal ; and without a director, it was impossible to retrace 
my steps. The bazaars are also narrow alleys, on each of 
which are little recesses into the abutting buildings. There 
the trader sits, flat on the floor, generally smoking, till inter- 
rupted by a customer. A large grocer may keep all his stock 
in twenty peck-baskets, on shelves, and by the side of his knees. 
Bread-shops occupy but a small space. I have looked into 
many an oven the floor of which was on a level with the shop 
floor ; and the baker sat, as all others do there, on his haunches. 
Hundreds of weavers of fringes, narrow silk scarfs, &c., are 
seen scattered widely over the bazaar ground, with the clumsi- 
est machinery and the rudest looms that were ever seen, fixed 
to the floor, the web upon the beam just clearing it. To meet 



76 A PILGRIMAGE TO EGYPT. 

the treaddles, a hole is dug in the earth, where they suspend 
their legs, and thus their feet touch the treaddles. They are 
ingenious in keeping up a connection with the floor. By rais- 
ing the loom and sitting on a stool, a more agreeable position 
would seem to be secured ; but such is not the custom. 

Narrow as the streets are, everybody rides — on donkeys, of 
course. It is broad farce to see a very large man, with a coal- 
black beard, basket-turban, and bare legs, his feet dangling to 
the ground, amble by, spurred on by a half-naked Arab boy, 
who pommels a stubborn little ass, not much larger than a 
South Down sheep, to keep him in a trot. They are kept 
saddled about the hotels, near certain corners, in the bazaars. 




in the square fronting the citadel, and by the city gates. If 
an excursion is made to the margin of the desert, to the pyra- 
mids, old Cairo, the palace at Shoobra, Heliopolis, or the petri- 
fied forest, — which really means a few scattered logs, — it is 
accomplished exclusively on donkeys. 



HORSES. 77 

There are splendid horses in Cairo, chiefly belonging to 
officers of the army, and official dignitaries. By taking a posi- 
tion to the south of the Mosque of Mohammed Ali, on a wall 
that permits the spectator to take an extensive view of the 
plain in front, stretching out towards the tombs of the Mame- 
luke kings, I have watched the exercises of the cavalry with 
exceeding interest. The horses know quite as much as their 
riders, and would be far preferable companions. However, the 
soldiers ride gallantly and daringly. A post being placed at 
the distance of ten or twelve rods from a starting-point, with a 
red cap on the top, a horseman runs furiously to it, and, in the 
act of turning round it, he strikes with his sword to behead the 
fixed enemy. Their speed is so extremely rapid that the cap 
is not hit very frequently. The bits are constructed with an 
iron lever, six inches long, that lies on the animal's tongue. A 
slight check of the rein presses the bar most cruelly into the 
roof of the animal's mouth, bringing him to an instantaneous 
stand-still, even when upon highest speed. Blood on the lips 
and the bridle shows his suffering. The horses are of all 
colors, as with us ; not large, but of medium height and size. 
They are always in excellent condition, their haunches being 
plump and round. Hay they never have, in the sense we 
understand the term. Very dry barley or wheat straw, night 
and morning, in which beans are freely mixed, constitutes their 
food. Once a year, — in June, if I remember rightly, — they 
are put out in the fields for upwards of twenty days, to feed on 
green clover, and other fresh stuff*. 

All the army-horses in Egypt have their tails cut square off*, 
leaving a long heavy mass, out of which a little hank of hairs 
is permitted to shoot out as far as it will. Their shoes are 
light and thin, covering the whole foot, save a small oval ori- 
fice for the pressing out of the frog. One reason why the 
7# 



78 A PILGRIMAGE TO EGYPT. 

Egyptian horses are spirited, and ready to fly like an arrow 
from the bow, is, that they have never been mutilated. Each 
animal remains through life with all the organs nature bestowed 
upon him. The officers caparison them very richly. Some 
of the saddles and accompanying trappings, holsters and other 
apparatus, including silver-mounted pistols, are not only beau- 
tiful, but costly. 

Camels are everywhere, within and without. They are the 
burden-bearers for all classes. They carry heavy stones in 
net panniers, for walls ; lime in sacks ; water in skins ; fuel, 
merchandise, and even men, women and children. Trains of 
from ten to thirty, tied the head of one to the tail of the 
other, are frequently met in narrow streets, treading as 
noiselessly as a cat. They are to Egypt and the deserts what 
railroads are in other countries. A child can manage them, 
when they are not under a periodical impulse, — an occur- 
rence in which instinct forbids the recognition of the master's 
voice, or the terrors of a whip. One of these animals must be 
taken for any land expedition; for carriages are out of the 
question, except for a short drive, or in the vans of the transit 
company, from Cairo to Suez. 

Most persons have extreme difficulty in finding bankers, 
consuls, merchants, or even the central offices of the govern- 
ment. There are few or no signs ; and it is only by long famil- 
iarity with the narrow, crooked places where any of them 
reside, that they can be readily found. 

Cairo is the seat of government, and therefore the focus of 
trade, and of every movement of interest to the traveller. He 
is perfectly secure there ; and all his wants, and much of his 
curiosity, may be gratified, because there is a price for each 
and all. A love for money is not concealed by any one ; and 
yet they rarely rob or steal. Whatever can be sold is disposed 



HOYAL RESIDENCES. 79 

of at the dearest rate for the purchaser ; and they will sell them- 
selves, if the price is forthcoming. "Wages are extremely low, 
and taxes high ; and the full weight of a wasting despotism 
falls upon the head of him who is unable to meet the rigorous 
demands of the pasha. 

Being weary of ra^nsacking the town for antiquities, I made 
an excursion or two for the contemplation of modern structures. 
The present ruler, Abbas Pasha, has a decided taste for putting 
up palaces. He has a retreat in the desert, towards Suez, 
where he retires, in extremely hot weather, for pure air. He is 
building a fine residence outside the wall, facing to the west, 
in a large walled enclosure, that already begins to have the 
appearance of a royal residence. Sentinels are posted at various 
angles, to keep the vulgar at an untainting distance. All the 
apartments are supposed to be both spacious and elegant. A 
flag is constantly floating in front. Where the lumber, sticks 
of timber, piles of stone, or other materials, were lying in the 
street, and round about the wall, sentinels, with long sticks, 
were keeping guard. Some of them reared up a half-moon- 
shaped wall, four feet high, where they squatted securely out 
of the way of a searching wind and sheets of sand that came 
-off the desert. The palace faces a bare plain of hard matted 
gravel, on which not a spire of anything green is to be seen. 
It would be the finest parade-ground in the world. 

A telegraphing tower is near the palace, where the old 
semiphoric boards are seen in action occasionally. Mohammed 
Ali had these towers raised throughout the entire length of his 
dominions, up the Nile, into Nubia, and also to the east- 
ward, into the desert. He was apprized, at any hour of the 
day, of what was transpiring in the whole country. His suc- 
cessor has neither the energy, originality or tact, of his grand- 
father, and consequently every department of the government 



80 A PILGRIMAGE TO EGYPT. 

is rapidly deteriorating. The telegraph is neglected altogether, 
in Upper Egypt ; but between Cairo and Alexandria some 
show of working is maintained. The towers are round, inva- 
riably whitewashed, and placed at distances, on eminences, 
that give the observer a distinct view of the stations each way. 
Some of them stand in desolate places, perched on ledges of 
rocks, in bleak, exposed positions, many miles from any settle- 
ment. 

A new regal residence is under way, to the south of the new 
mosque, on the elevated brow of the citadel, which gives a 
delightful, extensive, and unsurpassed view of the whole city, 
the river for ten or twenty miles, the plains, the pyramids of 
Geezeh and Sakkara, and the rich gardens towards Shoobra. 
The finishing lags ; why the floors are not laid, no one could 
tell, nor does any one care. Close by is the palace, a small 
house, comparatively, occupied by the old conqueror, when he 
was at Cairo. Wherever these royal residences are seen, the 
traveller dwells with some new emotions on the singular pro- 
vision in them all for securing the females of the family from 
the gaze of any one but the proprietor and the eunuchs. Their 
division is a prison ; and their sphere of action is circumscribed 
by partitions, strong v/alls, and closely-secured windows. Pri- 
vate dwellings are humble imitations of the larger and richer 
ones, while their interior economy is conducted on the same 
system. Elegance is chiefly displayed in the internal finish 
of a house. Some, without a single outward attraction, are 
excessively gaudy in paint, gilding, drapery and carpets, 
within. 

On the 10th of November, a longing desire of my boyhood — 
brought into intense activity by reading a history of ancient 
Egypt, during the long winter evenings, in a little country 
village — was abundantly gratified ; for I not only examined all 



PYRAMID OF CHEOPS. 81 

the pyramids of Lower Egypt, but actually stood on the sum- 
mit of Cheops, the highest artificial structure on the globe. 
Of course, it would be absurd to attempt a description of those 
wonders of human power. They are not of granite, as I had 
been led to suppose, but of a soft magiiesian limestone. In 
very many of the enormous blocks, animal remains, of a marine 
origin, older than the stones themselves, are common. Several 
ammonites were discoverable, protruding upon the surface ; and 
others had been cut through by the chisel of the lapidary, in 
quanying them. Tvro of them were over two inches in diam- 
eter, and might have been detached, had a hammer been at 
hand. Those mighty mountains of he^vn stone are just on 
the edge of the Libyan desert, upon a hard rock, that was 
levelled to receive them ; and when I stood near the Sphinx, 
looking up to them, in the excitement of astonishment, it 
occurred to me that Moses, Plato, Manetho, and priests, philos- 
ophers and historians, whose names have come down to our 
times, may have stood upon the same spot, and raised their 
eyes in bewilderment to the same identical monster fabrications. 
When the Jews w^ere in captivity, the pyramids were there, in 
their pristine greatness. 

A French savan Vv'as living in a tomb, a little south-west of 
the Sphinx, at w^ork upon the hieroglyphics. The national 
flag was flying at the top of a short pole, and he labored under 
its protection. It was reported that some new light had been 
thrown upon the chronology of Eg}-pt ; and that, instead of there 
having been as many dynasties and kings as generally sup- 
posed, there had been several kingdoms where tradition or 
historians had believed there had been but one. With that 
idea for a stimulus, the gentleman in the tomb was represented 
to be copying and studying inscriptions anew. Where he 
found half a dozen characters in Geezeh is a problem, as I 



82 A PILGRIMAGE TO EGYPT. 

never saw one, save an out-of-place inscription directly over the 
entrance into the pyramid of Cheops, by that depredator upon 
the antiquities of Egypt, Dr. Lepsius, who is rightly called 
Cambyses, the second destroyer; whose acts of destruction 
and whose faithful services may have enriched the museum of 
his master, at Berlin, by inflicting irreparable injury to the 
monuments of the Pharaohs. There is something in reserva- 
tion in regard to his depredations ; for he should be held up to 
archaeologists in the true light of a despoiler, whose learned 
dissertations are not to be received as an atonement and apology 
for the great injuries that mark his visitations to the temples 
and burial-places of ancient Egypt. Possibly there might 
have been a few symbolical characters on the lids of some 
slate-stone sarcophagi, lying on the sand, at the east of the 
pyramids. 

Most of the land for ten miles around being flooded, the jaunt 
was full ten miles on the side of dikes, to reach the place so 
ardently desired. We met a prodigious crowd of people, young 
and old, male and female, going to a fair. Some were on asses, 
some on camels, but far the largest part on foot. All the 
women were bearing something on their heads, which they 
were carrying for sale. When they came to the canal, they 
waded across. The men stripped ; but the women raised their 
one garment according to the depth, bearing the weight stead- 
ily upon their heads, and lowering the frock down as they 
gradually approached the opposite side. 

One eye is more fashionable than two ; for where there are 
two, one is a superfluity. No one is so extravagant as to have 
a couple. Both aged and youth are blind of one organ in 
such numbers as to call forth remark at once. Here, too, one 
or two front teeth were missing from the upper jaws of the 
Arabs. The right forefinger of all the middle-aged men was 




MEN OF THE L O W E K C L A S S E S . Page 85. 



CAUSES OF EGYPTIAN OPHTHALMIA. 85 

gone. I was assured that it had been common for mothers 
to put sand or lime into the right eye of their male infants, 
soon after birth, which effectually destroyed vision, that, when 
grown up, they might be disqualified for the army ; it being 
understood that aim could not be taken with a musket, when 
that one was gone. Mohammed Ali, some time before his 
death, put a stop to the universal maiming of the fellahs, 
which had become infectious, by impressing a regiment of 
one-eyed men. This unnatural act of mothers shows in what 
dread they stood of the army; and how insecure was the per- 
sonal liberty of the farmers, who might be driven, without a 
moment's notice, from their fields, their families and friends, 
to fight battles in which they had no interest, in a service 
from which there was neither promise or prospect of release. 
As I saw no small children who had been purposely blinded 
by the parents, I infer a discontinuance of the barbarous prac- 
tice. 

From a careful examination, I am convinced that the extreme 
prevalence of ophthalmia in adults is owing, in part, to the 
turban, there being no projecting rim to it, for a shade to the 
eyes, like the visor of an ordinary cap. Those who do not 
wear that hot, heavy head-gear, substitute the tarbousch, — a 
thick red felt cap, without a rim, and, consequently, admitting 
the strong rays of the sun directly into the eyes. Then the 
heated sand, reflecting the light with the intensity of a mirror, 
contributes to produce an irritability of the visual apparatus, 
which may degenerate into total blindness. Excessive neg- 
ligence in not bathing the eyes, the accumulation of filth at 
their angles, and the irritation of winds loaded with fine dust, 
are direct causes. Mothers pay no attention whatever to the 
condition of the faces or eyes of their children ; and the conse- 
quence is, they becom.e offensively foul, and purulent discharges 
8 



86 A PILGRBIAGE TO EGYPT. 

are established. This observation applies particularly to the 
lowest condition of society, where partial or total blindness is 
most common. Although regarded by themselves, and the 
ordinary class of medical practitioners in Egypt, — who are 
principally good-for-nothing Italian impostors, — as infectious, 
I saw enough to convince me that when the disease is trans- 
mitted from one child to another, it is by the transportation of 
matter on the feet and probosces of flies. They swarm in 
Egypt beyond all other places in the world ; and, notwithstand- 
ing the great amount of good they do in the general economy 
of nature, where their services are invaluable, the}'- are actually, 
to a considerable extent, the propagators of ophthalmia. An 
English lady, who has resided in Alexandria many years, and 
is perfectly familiar with the customs of the Arabs, assured me 
that an opinion prevails among them that it would be disastrous 
to wash an infant till it is one year old ; and consequently, 
from the hour they are ushered into existence, to the termina- 
tion of twelve months, the dirty little brats are never washed. 
This fact, alone, would seem to lay the foundation for other as 
well as ophthalmic disorders. I have often watched devout 
Moslems perched on the rim of a water-tank, in front of 
mosques, preparing to enter for prayers, ingeniously bathing all 
round the orbits, without wetting their eyes. Even the com- 
mon boatmen, in the morning, on the gunwale of the boat, will 
carefully wash the forehead, mouth, and concha of the ears, 
but never dampen their eyelids. 

Alarming accounts of the sweeping desolations of the cholera 
in Alexandria met us in Naples, in Messina, and at Malta; 
but when we arrived at Alexandria, and went fearlessly into 
it, nothing more was heard of its terribleness. In Cairo, it was 
represented that cholera had been a devastating angel, at places 
of which Europeans have but an imperfect geographical knowl- 



BIUTHS IN EGYPT. 87 

edge. A gentlemaa informed me that an army of pilgrims 
halted, the last season, at Damascus, to recruit a while, when the 
cholera broke out, and swept off nine thousand in a single day. 
The Arabs insist that the flesh of the goats and sheep, when 
the scourge rages in Syria, is poisonous, and those who eat of 
it are more liable than others to die of cholera. 

Infantile life is very insecure : teething and small-pox sw^eep 
off thousands annually. As the government gathers no statis- 
tical information, and an impression is abroad that the collec- 
tion of such facts v/ould not be tolerated, neither the mortality 
of children nor adults can be determined. Through the influ- 
ence of some distinguished person, a register of births and 
deaths was posted up on the side of the post-office in Alexan- 
dria. All the while I remained there, the same identical Arabic 
line remained, and my curiosity one day prompted me to have 
it translated. It simply stated that there had been a still-birth 
in the city ! In Cairo, some approximation towards a registra- 
tion of deaths is attempted ; but whether reliance is to be placed 
on the municipal returns, is questionable. 

That the births in Eg3^pt are far greater than the deaths, is 
manifest from the visible increase of population ; yet there are 
no inquiries or returns that give a clue to the exact annual 
increase. Females are prolific ; and even in harems, where the 
theory is that few children are born, a few known facts make 
it certain that, even under the conditions imposed upon them 
there, some establishments are prosperous in that respect. 
Ahmet Jayer Pasha, who recently died, assured an English 
gentleman of my acquaintance, residing at Alexandria, that he 
was the father of one hundred and thirty children ; and further, 
that he once lost thirty in one season by infantile complaints ! 
Many parallel cases might be brought to light, were an inquiry 
instituted. It is extremely rare that any one, of whom the 



88 A PILGSIMAGE TO EGYPT. 

inquiry is made, knows his age. They reckon from som.e 
m.emorable epoch, in ascertaining the years of a child, when 
asked. For example, when Artim Bey, the runaway treasurer 
of the pasha, made his escape with his master's money, a cer- 
tain boy was one year old; and then, by ascertaining how long 
since that occurred, they approximate within a few months of 
the true period. In well-regulated families, — that is, organ- 
ized as all well-to-do people conduct a family establishment, — 
the age of a child is probably remembered from correct data ; 
but how or when they begin to count the months or years, I am 
quite uncertain, except from the Hegira. 

If mention is not here made of the state of medicine and the 
medical school, of which such marvels have been related, — the 
creation of Clot Bey, — it may be forgotten. The fact is, the 
boasted institution has but a nominal existence. European 
physicians are in far better repute than any of home manufac- 
ture. Arabs and Turks may bleed, apply blisters, and other- 
wise torment the living; but they are miserably poor practition- 
ers. The Italians, as before asserted, push their way in Egypt 
more successfully than those from any other nation, particularly 
in the half-fledged hospitals, dispensaries, and medical stations. 
They succeeded, in the beginning of Mohammed All's reign, in 
worming themselves into service ; and then had the address to 
monopolize the quarantine departments, which were mainly 
established through their supple intriguing, and love for play- 
ing a part in every despotism. 

Lower Egypt, and possibly the Upper, is set off into medical 
divisions. One Italian may have ten villages within his juris- 
diction, which he visits several times a year. He takes both 
sides of the river, perhaps, for twenty miles ; and gets a poor 
salary for doing nothing but making a false show of professional 
business. Through some extraordinary necromancy, not clearly 



EGYPTIAN PHYSICIANS. 89 

understood, the German physicians have dispossessed the 
French, who were in the ascendant under the late viceroy ; but 
Abbas Pasha no sooner got possession of the ruling power, than 
he expelled Clot Bey from Egypt, and, with him, a large number 
of those who had assisted him in transforming Arab boys into 
operative surgeons for the army and navy of the pasha. The 
wise Clot Bey was eminently qualified to raise up an institution 
for teaching anatomy and medicine, if any one could ; and any- 
body, with a grain of common sense, could have accomplished 
all that he did, by the sustaining assistance of unlimited power 
and unrestricted resources. He was accused — perhaps with 
some show of reason — of building up a museum of instru- 
ments, the most extensive, extraordinary, useless and expensive, 
in the world. When he left, in a cloud of unpopularity, with 
an ignorant man at the head of affairs, he succeeded in saving 
a fortune. He is now living on past honors and interest-money. 

To return to the matter of practice : Physicians who have 
been consulted in the harem find the Circassian ladies have an 
invariable repugnance to showing their tongues, or exposing 
their wrists for the pulse ; nor are they willing a medical man 
should enter their sacred apartment, except under the most 
urgent circumstances. In my future prelections on the way 
and manner of practising medicine in Turkey, it will be found 
that quackery is admirably sustained there; and, further, that 
old women are in higher request, in chronic diseases, than the 
most eminent in the profession. 

A word more of the pyramids of Geezeh. I ranged about 
them, looked at the Sphinx in what there is left of its face; and, 
while raising my wondering optics to the amazing mass of 
hewn stone, — the oldest monuments of human hands on the 
globe, — two gray foxes, or jackals, — it was not easily deter- 
mined which, — came out from between the stones, about two 



90 



A PILGRIMAGE TO EGYPT. 



hundred feet up, and, discovering strangers, popped their heads 
in again and skulked away. 




There is a vast region to be explored to the east of the pyra- 
mid of Cheops, about the Sphinx, and Campbell's tomb. No 
doubt the ledge of limestone rock is excavated extensively ; and 
mummy-pits, complicated in structure, containing stone coffins, 
and thousands of human bodies, now concealed by the accu- 
mulated sand-drifts of ages, will hereafter be removed, and 
discoveries quite as extraordinary as any yet made in the land 
of the Pharaohs will reward the industry of those who engage 
in the research. The fore-paws of the Sphinx are reputed to 
have a temple between them ; and even the body, buried to 
the depth of a hundred feet or more, may itself prove to be a 
treasure of incalculable interest to antiquarians. 

It is the common impression that the Sphinx was a portion 
of the ledge on which the pyramids stand. Although we were 
unable to ascend to the head, on account of its height, — the face 
of which is shockingly mutilated, — that part has the appear- 
ance of being constructed of several artificial layers of stone, 
admirably fitted together. 

One of the naked, supple Arab guides insisted upon having 
a shilling to ascend the second large pyramid, the apex of 
which is covered by a smooth cement, that formerly covered the 
whole, but which was stripped off, for aught we know, three 



ASCENT OF THE PYRAMID OF CHEOPS. 91 

thousand years ago. I have no words to express my feelings 
of astonishment at what the old Egyptians accomplished. If 
there were no pyramids at all, the ranges of tombs at the back, 
or, rather, western side of the great one, would have been suffi- 
cient to have established their mechanical fame and artistical 
taste, independently of the skill of the unknow^n constructors. 
The vast dimensions of individual stones in the rows of apart- 
ments, scarcely mentioned in books of travel ; the nicety of the 
plan ; the imposing character of the fronts, that appear to have 
once loomed up on the edge of the Desert of Libya, in which 
the illustrious dead were laid, near to the royal sepulchres, — 
for such the pyramids must have been, — have no parallel in 
the world. 

On approaching the base of Cheops, a dozen or more guides 
clamorously presented themselves, and each wanted the job of 
escorting us to the top and interior. The sheik of the district 
— a sober, hard-featured Arab, whose skin, without a wrinkle, 
had the appearance of being baked to the bones — asked a fee 
for allowing us to ascend. The chattering rascals, as they 
afterwards proved, struck for backshiesh, which they could not 
get. They exaggerated the difficulty of going up, — a tedious 
process, to be sure, on account of the high step from one tier to 
the next, the blocks being near a yard thick. When the prices 
had been agreed upon, three Arabs took me, one at each hand, 
and the third behind. While lifting a foot to begin a step, they 
hoisted me up in a jifFy, and then up the next, and so on, at a 
speed that was never experienced before in going up-hill. Just 
before reaching the apex, — a frightful altitude to look from, — 
my hat blew oflf. One of the nude racers sprang for it down 
towards the Sphinx, faster than some run on level ground, and 
overtook it, borne off as it was by a triumphant gust of wind. 



92 A PILGEIMAGE TO EGYPT. 

An English sixpence paid that; but at every step, all three 
begged lustily. When a bargain has been fully and honorably 
sustained, and every farthing paid, according to a stipulation, 
if backshiesh is not given an Arab, he feels abused and mal- 
treated. It matters not vvrho it is, — from a general to a don- 
key-boy, — the everlasting, hateful word backshiesh is bellowed 
in our ears. When fairly on the level space, — perhaps forty 
feet square, — giving abundant evidence, by the loose blocks 
lying promiscuously about, that the structure once went higher, 
— no doubt to a point, — they all clamored again for back- 
shiesh. They said the old sheik, when Vv^e were gone, would 
take away nearly all we were to give them. The descent was 
accomplished without assistance, but attended with prodigious 
fatigue, aggravated by the possibility of making a misstep, and 
rolling over and over to the bottom, where the roUee would find 
himself mulled into jelly. 

In Herschel's Astronomy occurs the following: 
"At the date of the erection of the great pyramid of Geezeh, 
which precedes by 3970 years (say 4000) the present epoch, 
the longitudes of all the stars v/ere less, by 55° 45', than at 
present. Calculating, from this datum, the place of the pole 
of the heavens among the stars, it will be found to fall near a 
Draconis ; its distance from that star being 3° 44' 25". This 
being the most conspicuous star in the immediate neighborhood, 
was therefore the pole-star at the epoch. And the latitude of 
Geezeh being just 30° north, and, consequently, the altitude of 
the north pole there also 30°, it follows that the star in question 
must have had, at its lower culmination, at Geezeh, an altitude 
of 26° 15' 35". Now, it is a remarkable fact, ascertained by 
the late researches of Col. Vyse, that, of the nine pyramids 
still existing, all have narrov/ passages, by which alone they 
can be entered (all which open out on the northern faces of 



AEAB BEGGARS. 93 

their respective pyramids), inclined to the horizon, downward, 
at angles as follows, in three of them: 

Pyramid of Cheops, 26° 41'. 

Pyramid of Cepliren, 25° 55'. 

Pyramid of Mycerinus, 26^^02'. 

Of the two pyramids at Abousseir, also, which alone exist in a 
state of sufficient preservation to admit of the inclinations of 
their entrance passages being determined, one has the angle 
27° 5', the other, 20°. 

" At the bottom of *e very one of these passages, therefore, the 
then pole star must have been visible at its lower culmination ', 
— a circumstance w^hich can hardly be supposed to have been 
unintentional, and- was doubtless connected (perhaps supersti- 
tiously) with astronomical observations of that star, of whose 
proximity to the pole at the epoch of the erection of those won- 
derful structures, we are thus furnished with a monumental 
record, of the most imperishable nature." 

Having completed our explorations of the pyramids, and suf- 
ficiently gazed on the surrounding scenery, — for there were 
the green fields and the river between us and Cairo, and a 
grand view from the lofty elevation of Cheops, both up and 
down the great valley, and far over the slender minarets, quite 
into the arid desert of Arabia, — we made preparations for a 
departure. The donkeys, with their drivers, were w^aiting, 
half a mile distant, in a shady spot, on the margin of the sand. 
I made several attempts to walk behind the pyramid of Cephren, 
and further back, to the third one, smaller still ; but some one 
of the Arabs would invariably pop in upon me, and solicit 
backshiesh. At length I signified, by unmistakable gesticula- 
tions, to the most importunate of the company, something about 
blowing his brains out if he did not keep out of my sight, which 



94 A PILGRIMAGE TO EGITT. 

had the happy efiect of leaving me by myself, for contempla- 
tion. He declared it was the pasha's order that no travellers 
should be left alone ; and, besides, he undertook to frighten me 
with the possibility of being carried off into the desert by the 
Bedouins, who sometimes rushed down over the sand-swells 
beyond, and secured their prey. 

Such was the condition of the canals, in all directions, — 
being full of water, — that the ride was very circuitous, on the 
tops of the dikes. We could not get nearer than a mile and a 
half of the pyramids, in consequence of a break in one of the 
cross dikes, over which a clumsy bridge appeared to have 
recently fallen. A rude, dirty, heavy boat, fortunately, was 
near where we left the donkeys. It was something of an effort 
to bargain with the fellow at the helm, who saw our condition, 
and was disposed to take every advantage of it, to extort a 
price. We utterly refused to comply with his terms once, and 
thought of returning to Cairo, and approaching the pyramids by 
a higher route ; and off he sailed. Our indifference, in appear- 
ance, probably suggested to his mind that a moderate fee was 
better than none ; so back he came, and we embarked. The 
sail was over flooded fields, where the water was extremely 
shallow ; and several times the punt grounded. When poles 
and oars could not move it, over they jumped into liquid mud, 
and forced it out of the adhesive bed with their shoulders. A 
fellow — wild, fierce, stout, and of a bronze hue — swam off to 
us from quite a distance, and begged to be a guide. When all 
the company were in readiness, and the visitation of the pyra- 
mids over, we hurried back to the boat, the rabble of noisy, 
begging, all but naked Arabs of two villages following, beseech- 
ing for backshiesh, whether they had been employed or not ,* 
and even those who had been paid for their services were quite 
as annoying as others. It was with extreme difficulty that the 



DOiv^KEYS AND THEIS DRIVEES. 95 

old hulk of a boat was forced through the mud and swift cur- 
rents, — where the water rushed through breaches in the dikes, 
from a higher level, — and other obstructions, to where the 
patient asses stood in waiting. The ride, towards evening, 
back to the river, was delightful, where we crossed a miserable 
ferry, over to Old Cairo. There is no wharf or landing on 
either side ; and the crowd of boats, of all sizes, laden with peo- 
ple, cattle and donkeys, is astonishing. When a person is 
seen who looks as though he wished to cross, every boatman 
rushes for a customer; and the cheapest, as a general rule, 
gets the job, — though the appearance of the boat has some 
weight. The river is exceedingly swift at the ford, — boihng 
like a pot, at different points, and surging along by the soft 
h^nk with the spirit of the Mississippi at its junction with the 
Ohio. The boat was brought as near as it could be, and we 
sprang out upon a palm-tree log, resembling a monstrous cab- 
bage-stump. Down came the donkeys next. If they mani- 
fest reluctance, — as they always do, — they are forced in or 
out, without apology. In any other country on earth, it would 
be considered the height of temerity to attempt crossing a river 
of such magnitude in conveyances so frail as some of the boats 
appear, and invariably laden with human beings to the utmost 
capacity of stowage. With a torn sail, oars of spliced poles, 
and pipes in their mouths, the active aquarians soon strike the 
opposite shore in safety. 

The little obstinate donkeys were now urged to the top of 
their speed, lest the gates should be closed before we could 
i^fdch the wall. The drivers run from morning till night, 
thumping and pricking the animals every few steps, keeping 
up without apparent fatigue. I have known a driver stop on 
the way, to drink a cup of coffee, and, perhaps, afterwards, 
smoke a pipe, while the donkeys were going off at a satisfac- 



96 A PILGRIMAGE TO EGYPT. 

tory speed, trotting and galloping alternately ; and yet he would 
come on, running in a hotter sun than we have in July, with- 
out any appearance of unusual exertion or fatigue. They fare 
poorly, — breakfasting on a loaf of soft millet bread, and drink- 
ing water. They rarely taste meat ; and the only stimulus 
they ever indulge in is a small cup of coffee, the size of half an 
egg-shell, made thick as chocolate, and without sugar or milk. 
My observations on this class of men have convinced me that 
the coarser the diet, and the more actively the muscles are 
employed, the freer they are from organic derangements, from 
chronic affections, and the liability to acute diseases. 

We finally concluded a negotiation with the father of the 
reis who brought us from Alexandria, for the same boat and 
crew, for a voyage to Upper Egypt. He was a noble-looking 
Arab, and seemed too young to be the father of the captain 
with whom we had been sailing. He said he had two wives, 
and that he owned several boats ; and, for intelligence, activity 
and general appearance, he very much surpassed his son, reis 
Abuzeds, of whom there is more to be related. A written bar- 
gain was entered into, and a part of the money paid in advance. 
When he called at our lodgings, he squatted on the floor, leav- 
ing his shoes at the door. At the vice-consul's office, where 
the contract was drawn up, read to him, and interpreted to us, 
witnesses were called to affix their signets ; and he pressed on 
the seal of his big ring, moistened with ink, each party taking 
a copy. 

While our supplies were collecting, — charcoal, a cooking 
apparatus, pots, pans, bottles, flour, sugar, coffee, dates, rice, 
plates, coffee-pot, tea-cups, filtering-jar, pepper, salt, and a hun- 
dred such kind of articles as make up a house-keeping stock, 
besides various kinds of vegetables, fresh meats, and poultry, 







APOTHECARY SHOP. Pag3 «!>. 



THE BAZAARS. " 99 

— we again ransacked the city of Cairo, that nothing worth 
seeing should be left unseen. 

One day was set apart for the bazaars. I defy any one to 
convey a true idea of the appearance of an Arab store, or its 
contents. It is, in the first place, so very small, that it would 
seem beneath the ambition of a boy ten years of age to be 
engaged in such trifling business, where a capital, in thousands 
of instances, cannot exceed one hundred dollars. All the sad- 
dlers and saddlery are in a street by themselves ; so it is with 
tinmen and copper-dish manufacturers. They have a peculiar 
love for copper vessels. Nearly all the kitchen furniture is of 
copper. In the cofFee-shops, every pot and can is of copper, 
and black and filthy beyond endurance to my eyes. Calico- 
dealers, blanket-dealers, overcoat-makers, tailors, &c. &c., 
beyond recollection or enumeration, are congregated together. 
There is, therefore, one advantage in the arrangement, that it is 
known precisely where to go for anything that is for sale. I 
even saw shops where broken crockery was mended. It was 
amusing to watch the industry of a chap, with pincers, in a 
great turban, seated in the centre of a pile of broken dishes, 
matching two pieces of different colors. A pudding-dish, v/hen 
repaired, might be half blue on one side, and white on the other. 
Shoemakers are immensely numerous ; but they are tolerated, 
not unfrequently, in a recess in a street, under an awning, or on 
a mat against "a wall, and in door-ways. Barbers spread mats 
on the ground, in the bright sunshine, and drive a flourishing 
trade in the squares and Frank-street. Every Moslem has his 
head shaven as often as he can afford it. It is enjoined, has 
reference to cleanliness, prevents the nestling of vermin, and, 
lastly, it is a luxmy. No lather, or soap, in any form, is ever 
used. Squatted on thejiiat, the operator wets his own hand 
in a basin of water, and rubs the stiff bristles he proposes to cut 



100 A PILGRIMAGE TO EGYPT. 

off. The razor is a heavy stubb-blade, two inches and a half 
long, in a wooden handle, like a shoe-knife. Yet they are 
expert, and in a surprisingly short time have the whole head 
smooth as an ivory balL There are a plenty of barber-shops, 
— dark, greasy rooms, opening on the street, with benches run- 
ning round the sides, on which customers sit. There is no 
fixed price, — every one paying just what he conceives the 
process to be w^orth ; and no questions are asked, nor any grum- 
blings iieard that it is not enough. One long lock, on the top 
of the crown, is left, for the prophet to hoist them by into par- 
adise. 

We took a look into a Greek church, at the urgent solicita- 
tion of an oily Syrian, acting as deputy for the American 
vice-consul, who was at Damietta, about his own business, 
instead of that which he was, by virtue of his office, appointed 
to conduct. It was a shabby affair, bearing considerable 
resemblance to ordinary Catholic churches, but inferior in 
workmanship; and the saints, by dozens, with unpronounc- 
able names, looked as though they were painted with a birch 
broom, and gilded with sheet-brass. It was a trick to sponge 
something for the priest, who could not be expected to leave his 
sanctimonious employments, to gratify heretics from the New 
World, without backshiesh, — a word that made me boil over 
with wrath whenever uttered, since it was in everybody's mouth. 
In the course of this diary, I shall have occasion to refer to this 
assistant to the United States vice-consul again, as through his 
dishonesty we suffered both a loss of time and money. 

One morning we met a long procession of dirty, boisterous 
chiklren, a part, if not the w^hole of them, howling like devils, 
and followed by groups of veiled women. No one of whom 
we inquired could explain the meaaiing of it. About the 
same time, I \vas accosted by a woman, with an infant in 



SIGHT-SEEING IX CAIRO. 101 

her arms, begging money to put at interest for ber child when 
she was married, — a common custom. It may be observed 
here, that there are no old maids in Egypt : every one is sure 
to have a turn at matrimony. Divorces, however, are more 
frequent than summer showers. Sometimies the wife, but more 
frequently the husband, seeks a separation, on the most frivolous 
pretexts. When a man has four wives, he does not hesitate long 
when he wishes to lessen his household. Although a common 
man has been frequently known to divorce four wives in a 
single year, and even more, it creates no kind of surprise. Of 
marriage, divorces, the harem, the economy of every-day life in 
the family, and the customs and institutions of the Coptic 
church, I shall have occasion to speak hereafter. 

We passedan enclosure where I saw a tall, splendid giraffe, 
just arrived from an undefined region on the Upper Nile, the 
property of the pasha. I also passed another yard, belonging 
to his highness, where a very stout, heavy ostrich was walking 
about the premises. They were none the less curious for being 
seen on the continent where they are natives. No one seemed 
to know or have any idea of where they came from, beyond the 
common notion that whatever is unaccountable or mysterious 
in animal organization comes down the Nile. When I inquired 
where the dancing-girls came from, the answer was precisely 
the same, — from down the Nile. Now, as they were neither 
Arabs, Copts, Berbers, or Africans, the question w^as one worth 
solving, both in a physiological and ethnological view, since 
they are more numerous than giraffes or ostriches. They 
resemble the Gypsies of England, and the Malays. This will 
come under consideration again. 

We often passed shops, in the bazaars, in which the enter- 
prising proprietor was fast asleep on a rug ; others were left 

entirely alone, — a simple gauze curtain being let down m 
9# 



102 A PILGRIMAGE TO EGYPT. 

front ; — a dish with money in plain sight, and goods of various 
colors and value, were within one foot of the fingers of a pas- 
ser-by, yet a theft of them would be without precedent. Some 
shopkeepers were at their devotions. In the midst of the busy 
crowd of strangers, when the hour of prayer arrives, the consci- 
entious Mussulman rises from his cushion, faces the holy city 
of Mecca, and goes through all the prescribed ceremonies of 
bowing, touching his forehead to the floor, and repeating, with 
a rapid articulation, the prayers enjoined on all true believers. 
Whole streets of shopkeepers were smoking at once. I called 
at an opium-smoking room, one evening, with a hope of finding 
a customer under the influence of that drug ; but no one exhib- 
ited a frenzied condition of exaltation, and I returned to my 
lodgings disappointed. 

While the boat was being made ready, we continued our 
explorations. One day we paid a visit to the madhouse ; 
afterwards to the court of the cadi, to the police, and to one or 
two of the most celebrated of the mosques. 

Near our lodgings there was quite a large yard, entered from 
a narrow street, through a wide gateway, which, every morn- 
ing, was usually filled by Arabs, boys, some Jews, a few Copts, 
— sometimes women, veiled, though barefoot, and covered by a 
single blue cotton frock, something after the pattern of a farm- 
er's. Policemen, in blue frock-coats, with a row of brass car- 
tridge-cases on each breast, a long sword, pistols in a sash, a red 
cap, and Christian pantaloons, or Greek breeches, big enough 
to hold ten bushels of grain, were numerous. One morning 
we called in upon the magistrate. To get at him, we entered 
the yard, and ascended a flight of steps to the second story of 
a low building, which had a single room, long and narrow. 
On the longest side, running the entire length, was a bench, 
under the name of divan. About the centre of it sat the j'ldge, 



COURTS IN CAIRO. 103 

cross-legged, in his stocking-feet, writing on his knee. He was 
a very handsome man, of about fifty. His inquiry was, what 
was wanted. The dragoman was instructed to inform him that 
we were Americans, who had called to pay their respects to 
him, and to witness the legal processes of his court, to compare 
them with those of our own and other countries. He received 
us with much cordiality, graciously had chairs brought in, — 
a luxury hardly to be found in Egypt, except in the residences 
of Europeans, — and then made some inquiries in regard to our 
health, &c. He had no cases then before him ; but his honor 
said he had just finished two ; that four witnesses were neces- 
sary, and then, again, something about two being sufficient for 
a conviction. Perhaps I did not clearly understand Hassan's 
interpretation. Word may have been passed along to another 
ofiice that strangers were present, as, speedily, a large, fine, tall 
Turk, of between fifty and sixty, dressed in a blue frock and 
pantaloons, — the prefect of police, — walked in ; and we were 
given to understand that he was a distinguished personage. A 
long pipe was passed round for a whifi', and cofiee brought to 
us in little cups set in brass baskets ; it was black, thick, and 
strong. Our intentions with regard to the route we proposed 
were asked, and some civil observations made about the secur- 
ity of travellers under Abbas Pasha. Both the jndge and him- 
self were the best-looking, most intelligent and well-bred officers 
we were brought in contact with in the city of Cairo. All the 
menials hovered upon our flank, on retiring, for backshiesh, 
which was distributed, according to usage, at the portals of 
Egyptian justice. 

We now directed our steps to the highest court in the land, 
that of the kadi, who holds his appointment from the sultan of 
Turkey, and always comes from Constantinople. We were 
subjected to a fatiguing walk, before the great tribunal was 



104 A PILGRIMAGE TO EGYPT. 

found. It was in Cairo ; but in Vv'hat street, or section of the 
city, it is impossible to decide. Passing through a rough gate- 
way, we entered a square yard, — containing, perhaps, a quar- 
ter of an acre, — in which Arabs, Turks, Armenians, Jews 
and negroes, were sitting and walking. There were some fine 
horses, elegantly caparisoned, held by bare-legged servants; 
and a multitude of official-looking personages, with bright brass 
inkstands in their girdles. Fronting the west, on the eastern 
side of the yard, was an old, rickety, two-story building, with 
an open, wide balcony, protecting those near the edge from 
falling, head-first, into the square. A flight of steps led up to 
the first, where a group of fine, well-dressed Arabs were behind 
a slight railing, intensely occupied in writing on their knees, 
— in all cases their desk. Both men and women were coming 
and going, and holding earnest conversation with them. They 
were attorneys-at-law. Instead of having possession of the 
centre of the court-room, in front of the judge, as with us, they 
were actually kept at a respectful distance, outside the door, 
and not permitted to enter at ail. 

While musing on the scene around us, we noticed, coming 
down stairs that led into the interior, an aged Turk, of small 
stature, gray beard, somewhat round-shouldered, and stooping. 
He was accompanied by persons in fine clothes, with pistols, 
swords, and various indications of consequence. This was the 
kadi, — the chief justice, — who has the reputation of dispens- 
ing law to suit the party which is best able to purchase a deci- 
sion satisfactory to themselves. We stood aside, to give him 
room to pass; but, seeing infidels, he stopped short, and 
inquired who we were. Being informed that we were Ameri- 
cans, from a country beyond the Ingleese, he seemed to com- 
prehend, at least, that we had come from a great distance. 
He expressed profound regret that he had that moment been 



MORALS OF CAIRO. 105 

summoned to' the palace by Abbas Pasha, but invited us 
warmly to pass into the court and take coffee. Eespectful 
salaams were mutually exchanged, and the old man proceeded 
down to the yard, where he was assisted to mount a noble- 
spirited horse, and his company sprang upon the saddle of 
others; and, his horse being led by the bit, by a groom, we saw 
the kadi, with his retinue, pass out at the gate, and have never 
seen him since. 

The principal apartment, or court-room, to which we groped 
our wajT", had a bench against the wall, covered by a cushion, 
on which his worship probably sat, in hearing and determining 
causes. In adjoining rooms there were dozens of clerks, writ- 
ing in large blank books, loosely bound, which had accumulated 
in piles on the floor. All sat squat on the floor, writing on their 
knees, with a reed instead of a quill, the ink being thick as 
oil-paint. 

There were processions, funerals, suddenly-moving crowds, 
straggling files of women wailing, marriage ceremonies, and 
jugglers, with their audiences of wondering gazers, and the 
like incidents of a large city, perpetually occurring, the chron- 
icling of which would be an endless undertaking, but which 
were, nevertheless, always new, curious, and sometimes very 
surprising. One feature in Cairo, Alexandria, and, in fact, 
throughout Egypt, puts to shame the state of public morals in 
the cities of Europe and America. There are no lewd, night- 
walking women, no dance-houses, no drinking-shops, in which 
the abandoned of both sexes are to be seen, nor the slightest 
deviations from a most strict and thorough observance of all 
the proprieties of life. Of what there is beyond the walls of 
the harem, and of the social relations of the family, among the 
rich and poor, the high and low, in town and country, it will 
be no easy task to ascertain. 



106 A PILGRIMAGE TO EGYPT. 



DAILY JOURNAL FROM CAIRO TO PHIL^, THROUGH 
UPPER EGYPT. 

Nov. lAth, 1850. Thursday. — By eight o'clock this morn- 
ing, we left our lodgings in Cairo, bag and baggage, forming,-to 
any eye but an Egyptian's, a ludicrous and really grotesque 
cavalcade. A horse carried the trunks, stra.pped and bound as 
firmly as though they were to be transported in that way round 
the globe. The donkey-drivers had their shirt-bosoms stuffed 
with small affairs, such as a bottle of ink, a pair of slippers, and 
their own luncheon of native bread, — resembling a foot square 
of sole-leather, ready for the lap-stone. In good season, and 
without cracking a tea-cup, our property, with ourselves, arrived 
safely at Boulac, — that busy, dusty, dirty section of the river- 
bank, where all the boats are moored, and where goods are 
debarked, and Arabs smoke, eat, drink and bargain, at the 
same breath. There lay the boat, without a name, which 
brought us from Alexandria. By the letter of the contract, it 
was to be sunk before we went on board, to kill the vermin ; 
but, as there were rats under the floor the first day, they prob- 
ably had an inkling of the murderous intentions of the owner, 
and prudently went on shore as the water came in. 

It was eleven o'clock before getting under way, in conse- 
quence of the non-arrival of a part of the crew, who had gone 
for a batch of bread, — something the Nile sailors talk about 
incessantly, when preparing for a voyage. A stern pole had 
to be rigged, for holding the American flag; and some other 
small fixtures were added. Just as the painter was to be 
hauled in, the old proprietor announced that we must purchase 
a stick for each man to fight with, in case of an attack. Be- 
lieving he had them to sell, perhaps for the twentieth time, — 
for whoever purchased would, of course, leave them behind, — 



ISLAND OS" RHODA. 107 

and assuring him that we should always do ail the fighting, — 
a pastime in which travellers from the New World gloried, — 
he reluctantly let go ; and, at the same instant, a soft breeze 
swept us out into the stream, and the boat sped on her way, by 
the beautiful island of Rhoda, and the large palaces dotting its 
placid surface, in the possession of the offshoots of Mohammed 
Ali. Whatever is worth possessing as a residence was exclu- 
sively monopolized by the old I'egenerator, and has since come 
into the possession of his children or grandchildren. 

A few miles up, on the right hand, was a broad, two-story 
building, with an immense enclosure of ground towards the 
water, called the Sailor Hospital. Nearly opposite, on the 
east bank, upon an elevated ridge of limestone, were forty-five 
windmills, with their arms flying round merrily, close to the 
encroaching sand of the desert. On this island was the cele- 
brated Nilometer, — a square well, in which was a graduated 
pillar, for giving the rise and fall of the river. Nothing of 
either can nov,' be identified ; 3^et tourists tax their imagina- 
tions exceedingly, when near where it may have been, because 
it is an epoch to have seen a contrivance that is referred to a 
Pharaonic age; when, in reality, the last one recorded to have 
been consulted by the people was placed there by Caliph 
Mamoon, in A. D. 833. 

The old pasha had a fine garden on the island of Rhoda ; 
and, when I strolled over it, the oranges, raised on a tumulus, 
were of the most delicious flavor, and abundant. The attend- 
ants are ready to fill a gentleman's pockets, notwithstanding 
the 0T\Tier's orders never to pluck one, provided they can raise 
the bacicshiesh. It was on the side of this lonely island that 
one tradition sa3's the infant Moses was picked up, as he came 
floating unconsciously along, in a frail ark of bulrushes, when 
discovered by the princess Thermuthis, the daughter of the 



108 A PILGRIMAGE TO EGYPT. 

king. Reference has already been made to another current 
tradition, which fixes upon Boulac as the place where the great 
Jewish lawgiver was saved. When the Greeks had a control- 
ling power in Egypt, a bridge of boats connected Rhoda with 
where Fostat stood. The only mode of going there now is to 
hire a small boat to ferry* across. The one I went in was man- 
aged by a man and boy. Although without a cabin, or an 
awning overhead, his one wife and child lived there. She 
amused herself by hunting vermin on the little brat's body, and 
throwing them into the Nile, while the owner was setting us 
howadjis through the current. -' 

At four o'clock this morning, the call to prayers from the 
minarets in Cairo was simultaneous, and resounded in the dis- 
tance like the dying tone of a hundred bells. In passing Old 
Cairo, sailing up stream, we were curious to watch if the 
muezzin was punctual at twelve o'clock, as he should be, 
according to the directions of the prophet ; but no one appeared. 
This was in accordance with previous observation, that, in 
cities, the faithful have no certain hour for devotions, after the 
morning prayers. I have often seen a pious Moslem at his 
devotions when most convenient, without reference to a specific 
period. 

The street of mud hovels we passed through, just south of 
Boulac, was so pregnant with human misery and degradation, 
that the recollection of what I saw there has haunted me ever 
since. The walls were of mud, covered with brush, millet- 
stalks and «traw. The doors were not over four feet high; 
and within, there were, in some of them, three little apart- 
ments, dark and cheerless. Goats, fowls, and a squadron of 
the most filthy, unlovable children ever seen, were crawling in 
and out, without interruption. 

Passed the carcass of some large animal, that was aground 



ANCIENT MEMPHIS. 109 

in shallow water, tugging away at which was a poor, starv^ed, 
mangy dog, and two bold, ravenous vultures, contending for 
the prize. Not far off were nine envious crows, as spectators. 
Passed a forest of date-trees, standing on a fertile spot between 
the river and Sakhara. At this latter place there are pyra- 
mids ; some in good condition for resisting the assaults of time 
SLX thousand years to come, while others have actually decom- 
posed, and crumbled down into the form of an ash-heap. 
Passed the site of ancient Memphis. A particular visitation 
will enable me to detail the present condition of that once all- 
glorious city, where there is now but one single, solitary hut, 
under the shade of a palm-tree, in front of which is the colossal 
statue of Rameses II., forty -two feet in lengthy lying partly on 
its face. Here and there w^e saw a block of red polished gran- 
ite, a piece of marble, and other remains of temples and palaces, 
whose locality cannot be designated, but which w^ere the admi- 
ration of generations of men who supposed, perhaps, that they 
were destined to endure while the earth lasted. Such is the 
mutability of the works of man. On the right hand, the land 
is evidently making pretty fast, which crowds the river over, to 
gully out the opposite bank. We saw lots of Arab girls bath- 
ing, while some were walking on the bank, as their ancestors 
were accustomed to do, and, no doubt, in the same place ; — 
for Memphis, the great city, must have stretched from the 
Libyan desert quite down to the water. Green fields of Indian 
corn were common. Directly opposite, on the left or eastern 
shore, we could see a multitude of caves and doorways, of 
various shapes, leading into the limestone rocks. Roasted ears 
of Indian corn arer* offered, on nearing the bank. In Cairo, a 
para would buy five ears ; and five paras are only equal to one 
cent. Saw from the deck a large cavalcade of asses, camels, 
sheep and men; also a group of large, dark-colored tents, looking 
10 



110 A PILGKIMAGE TO EGYPT. 

as if made by stretching a sheet upon the tops of stakes. The 
conclusion was that a fair was being held, for people were run- 
ning all in one direction. Saw an enormous pile of beans on 
the ground, — a modern pyramid. They are an important 
crop in Egypt. 

Nov. 16th. Friday. — It was agreed that I should look at 
the compass occasionally, through the night, to ascertain 
whether the reis would attempt to prolong the trip unnecessa- 
rily, by drifting back when he supposed his passengers asleep ; 
— an old trick, of which Nile contractors are frequently guilty. 
Once only I examined the dial. There was a tolerable breeze, 
that lasted till daylight, when it died away ; and at two o'clock, 
p. M., the crew were pulling very slowly at the tovv^-line. 
Hassan was quite sick in the forenoon, but a little timely med- 
ical attention restored him. On the left, as we ascended, there 
was a continuous range of hills, broken down at intervals, as 
though blown away ; while the prominences, flat on the top, 
gave them a castellated appearance, in the distance. The sand 
came down nearly to the running water on our course, to-day, 
on that side. A second row of terraced hills, still further off, 
in the distant back-ground, in the Arabian desert, had a grand 
effect ; it was like the rich shading of a picture. On the right, 
the strip of arable land was estimated to be between eight and 
ten miles wide, before reaching the sand-drifts. 

Passed the last pyramid, standing off in a field. We have 
successively seen those of Geezeh, Abooseer, Sakkara and 
Dashoor. This last is quite different from all ©thers, being in 
offsets, or terraces, of whitish stone, erected upon a rock, appar- 
ently, considerably above the common land-level. Passed a 
large drove of camels, aud saw prodigious numbers browsing 
in a coarse grass-field. This was the first opportunity had for 
seeing those ugly-formed monsters at their ease, without mas- 



INCIDENTS OF THE VOYAGE. Ill 

ters. A shepherd came to the river, followed, from a distant 
feeding-ground, by a very large flock of sheep, to be washed. 
They nestled close to his heels, and it was delightful to notice 
their confidence in him. Wherever he turned, they moved 
also, and strove for the nearest place to his person. It was a 
patriarchal exhibition of instinctive reliance on man, never wit- 
nessed in our own country. Went quite near a little fleet of 
small boats, moored, in which the all but naked occupants — 
grave Arabs, in huge turbans — were spinning on hand-distafis, 
mending nets and braiding rope. I have repeatedly see^ men. 
spinning in that manner, at Alexandria and Cairo, and in vil- 
lages ; but have no recollection of having seen a woman pursu- 
ing that appropriate emplo}Tiient. 

Yery many Arab girls came down to the river, towards even- 
ing, — as they do also in the morning, — bearing hea\y earthen 
jars on their heads, for water. It must be the general pursuit of 
the fellah females, from the universality of the practice. They 
may be seen pursuing their way, with a full jar, more than a 
mile ofl", going to their homes. The vessel weighs quite as 
much as the contents. They rarely spill a drop, never stumble, 
yet barely touch the jar, from time to time, with one hand. 
Most of the females in the to"wns evidently idle away their 
lives, by lying about in the dust, on the shady sides of their 
huts, with the children and hens. Mr. Warren landed, and 
followed the bank, with a gun, for game, but had better success 
in buying fish. Twenty-one, freshly caught, with sparkling 
scales, cost bwt one cent and a half of our currency. Came up 
where naked boys were fishing, and about as many females 
looking on, unconcerned, beyond the success of the bronzed 
bipeds before us. A large cargo of peas passed, in bulk, — the 
uncovered mass being inhabited by a be^y of women, bare- 
footed, wearing a single blue garment, with veiled faces. They 



112 A PILGRIMAGE TO EGYPT. 

must be particularly partial to aquatic excursions, such num- 
bers of them are all the while traversing one way or the other. 
No fruit-trees seen thus far, with the exception of tall dates. 
These are ordinarily described as graceful, with their plumed 
tops waving in the zephyrs ; to me they appear like gigantic 
cabbage-stumps, just budding. The date-palm is precisely 
fitted to the climates where it thrives ; but it must be a poetical 
vagary to represent it as beautiful, compared with the finely- 
proportioned trunks and velvet foliage of a hundred varieties of 
fruit 9,nd forest trees in Europe and America. At Alexandria 
they have excellent grapes, and luscious oranges and bananas ; 
but they are brought from near Eosetta. In the bazaars of 
Cairo, it was common to see apples, pears and pomegranates ; 
but we could not ascertain very clearly where they grew. They 
were too dear to be eaten by the common people, who have 
nothing more than is absolutely necessary for sustaining life, 
and, therefore, rarely indulge in the luxury of foreign fruit. 
Our stock of fruit — such as oranges, pomegranates and melons 
— was found to be extremely grateful in topping off a Nile 
dinner, cooked as it was for us. 

Nov. 16tk. Saturday. — No wind, and, therefore, reluctantly 
compelled to pin fast to the bank, all last night. It was a 
lovely evening, so balmy was the air; and therefore very much 
enjoyed, anxious as we were to be progressing. Such magnif- 
icent light I had never seen before. The stars, those gems of 
the sky, hung low in the heavens, sparkling with a transcend- 
ant brilliancy nowhere else discoverable on thQ globe. This 
Nilotic valley is the paradise of wild geese, flying and huddling 
together at pleasure, without the fear of turbans, although they 
certainly are shy of hats and caps. They discriminate between 
the races. While the latter molest and destroy them, the former 
have not the means, being rarely in possession of fire-arms, i^ 



SINGULAR NATURAL PYRAMIDS. 113 

they have a bird-slaughtering disposition. No one can have 
a gun in Upper Egypt, without a license ; which no farmer 
could procure, if he were ambitious in that line, for the want 
of money. Birds of all plumage, among which are both turtle 
and common doves, are perpetually frolicking in undisturbed 
freedom. In the stillness of the night we often heard the sound 
of falling masses of mud from the perpendicular banks. The 
alluvial, unctuous mud, under a hot sun, cracks into very curi- 
ous geometrical figures, which sway off from the perpendicular, 
next the water, and by and by fall over. When walking on the 
monstrous beds cracked into that form, it brought to mind the 
pavement of the Giant's Causeway, in Ireland. If intense heat 
were applied while in the columnar condition which the mud, 
in drying, invariably takes, precisely the same result would be 
produced that Nature effected when she manufactured that 
singular arrangement of rocky pillars on the Emerald Isle. 

We frequently discovered, to-day, on the ^desert of Arabia, 
peculiar forms of limestone, which, in the distance, perfectly 
resembled the pyramids. They are of older date. Thousands 
of years must have been required for those mountains to have 
decomposed on their outside, and to have been fashioned as 
they are by the elements. The thought that the architects of 
the pyramids took a hint from these extraordinary geological 
monuments of the physical changes wrought on the earth's sur- 
face passed through the mind. They resist the moving sands, 
when the winds urge them towards the river. Some of the 
accumulations at the base of these natural pyramids are enor- 
mously large, rising into prominences, and scooped out into 
valleys, which may be changed by a shift of wind to other 
forms, no less striking. 

This morning, a new variety of crow was flying about the 
cultivated fields, having black wings, a black head, a leaden- 
10^ 



114 A PILGRIMAGE TO EGYPT. 

colored bill, wide at the root, and rather disproporlioned to the 
size of the bird. All the remaining feathers were fawn-colored; 
but their voice, or croak, was identical with the black crow of 
New England. They were in no fear whatever of Arabs, — 
lighting down close to them, as they were tugging at the boat. 
Where the sand or green crops extend quite to the water, there 
the crows abound. 

By three hours after sundown, the nights were quite chilly ; 
but through the day there was a little more than the summer 
heat of Naples, or of America in the latitude of Virginia. 
Towards morning it was, occasionally, decidedly cold. The 
Arabs lie down in their coarse hooded bournouses — which are 
analogous to cloaks — on the deck, never undressing; and 
sleep refreshingly, and, probably, warmly, as they make no 
complaint. Current of the river very swift and strong, where 
we were sailing. Rats were belaboring the partitions again; 
the sound, in the stillness of the night, being something like 
boring a hard board with an auger. Our stipulation to have 
the boat sunk was of no avail, since, if the vermin V\'"ere forced 
out, others have come in their place, by being alongside of other 
craft. Ali was asked if he saw any rats drowned when the 
submersion took place. " O, yes," he answered, in an animated 
voice, " me see two, nine, twenty." Such depredations were 
made upon the store of rice, that it was beginning to be alarm- 
ing. It is a serious matter to be out of eatables, where they 
cannot be replaced. 

Arrived at Benisooef, where a governor resides. A road 
leads off to the Fyoom, a fertile locality in the Libyan Desert. 
A brick pyramid, in ruins, stands where a glimpse may be had 
of it. Benisooef is a large town, and has the reputation of 
being an impudent one to Christian travellers ; but we were 
treated civilly. It is a dirty, dusty spot, built on heaps of rub- 



BENISOOEF. 115 

bish. Once it supplied all Egypt with linen ; now it could not 
furnish enough for a whole shirt. At a distance, it has a grand 
appearance ; but the inviting aspect melts into air, on approach- 
ing it. About sundown our boat came up gallantly towards the 
town ; and, from the stir of men and women running near the 
river, we judged some sensation was raised. However, the 
movement proved transitory, when they discovered we were 
howadjis. A band of musicians was performing, at a few rods' 
distance from the landing, a barbarous air, — or no air at all. 
Their instruments were neither in tune with each other, nor 
did they play in harmony. It was a shocking noise for any 
ears save their own. A broader farce could not have been 
represented on a stage. 

Nov. 11th. Sunday. — Hassan had a relapse, which rendered 
an emetic indispensable, which he swallowed, from time to 
time, saying " Tank you " at the close of each draught of the 
nauseous preparation. Arabs are fond of medicine ; the flavor 
is not of the least importance ; and, what is still more extraor- 
dinary, when in fine health they are quite gratified to take 
doses, let the operation be what it may. It is a pleasure to 
prescribe for such patients. 

At an early hour I walked to an immense mound at one side 
of the town, — the accumulation of centuries upon centuries, 
marking the site of more ancient dwellings, — from w^hence 
there was a satisfactory view of Benisooef, which had been 
passed. Upon the acknowledged principle that distance lends 
enchantment to the view, the mud residences, and even the 
attempt at a fine house, dubbed a palace, in which the governor, 
with his numerous household, were lodged, appeared beau- 
tifully when six miles from them. Neither conveniences nor 
comforts, in our sense, w^ere to be had in the pashalic. None 
of the streets exceeded five feet in width, while many were 



116 A PILGRIMAGE TO EGYPT. 

narrowed down to three. Reeds were laid overhead, from, one 
side to the other, to exclude the sun and intense light of mid- 
day. Scores of females, veiled with coarse cotton stuff, sus- 
pended by a heavy brass chain of ferrules from a strap across 
the head, were squatting by the sides of piles of soft bread, 
which they had for sale. Others were cooking, in earthen pots, 
over a handful of charcoal ; while many more had baskets of 
fine smoking-tobacco. Still further on, in some of the narrow, 
crooked lanes, were little niches in the walls, where grave, 
cross-legged merchants had some cheap calico, a few darning- 
needles, pieces of braid, and thread. Meats, fruits and tobacco, 
were sold by weight, as they should be ; but, instead of weights, 
representing ounces, pounds, or okes, they were simple stones, 
of different sizes, v/hich were recognized by the citizens as 
lawful. 

Back of the town, on a low plain, a company of cavalry was 
exercising and firing, quite spiritedly. A modern edifice, of 
small dimensions, having glass windows, near the river, was 
one of Mohammed All's resting-places. Shadoofs were very 
numerous on each side. It is an exceedingly laborious exer- 
cise, and monotonous employment, to raise the water to succes- 
sive levels, by their rude apparatus. Half of all that is brought 
up in the bucket spills out before it is high enough to be poured 
into the mud basin, where a second shadoof dips it up for 
another step towards the top of the ground. This constitutes 
the essential business of the fellah, or farmer. For three thou- 
sand years the same system has unquestionably been pursued, 
and with precisely the same kind of pole, balanced by a ball of 
mud at one end. Such rude and primitive modes of performing 
labor, without improvement or progress of any kind, constantly 
recurring, presented a strong contrast to the state of things in 




'J" HE SHAD O O F . Paire m;. 



/ 



BENISOOEF. 



119 



the countries we had left, where mind is impressing the ener- 
gies of nature to relieve man of these onerous burdens. 

In the neighborhood of the house with glass windows, we 
observed two other buildings, superior to the common struc- 
tures, whitewashed. The upper-story windows were protected 
by fine gratings, — indicating that the persons who occupied 
them had harems, the appendages of a man of distinction. 
Further on, a mud-walled enclosure was represented to contain 
an arsenal. In a doorway was a man weaving a web of silk, 
on a tiny loom, scarcely a foot wide, — the roughest, rudest 
combination of sticks and strings ever used for such a purpose. 
The piece was fine, even-threaded, and altogether a good 
article. 

My short-hand notes furnish several other particulars of 
Benisooef. A second visit to the big mound gave a chance of 
analyzing its character. It seemed to be wholly of broken pot- 
tery, ashes, brick, straw, blocks of stone, bones, and manure. 
Were it leached, it would yield cargoes of saltpetre. No 
distant towns or villages, or even isolated hamlets, could be 




discerned in the distance, in any direction. We saw yester- 
day some immensely large pelicans, and again to-day. They 



120 A PILGRIMAGE TO EGYPT. 

are altog-ether superior, in size, to any I have seen in Paris, or 
at the Zoological Garden in London. In 1844, passing through 
Lake Pepin, on the Upper Mississippi, a flock of these bill- 
pouched birds was observed, v^^hich were delicately v^-'hite, v^^ith 
the same general anatomical arrangement for carrying food, 
but Lilliputians compared with the gigantic pelicans of Upper 
Egypt. A battalion of monstrous vultures was descried on a 




shoal, feasting on the carcass of an ass, with which a half- 
starved dog, or jackal, — it was not easy to decide which, — 
was either an invited guest, or a Jeremy Diddler in pursuit of a 
dinner. I watched their operations a long while. When the 
brute had his stomach full, he leisurely walked away, through 
files of strong vultures, who were probably gratified to have 
him take leave. When he had got some half a dozen rods off, 
every one of their eyes being upon him, they suddenly pounced 
upon the decaying mass, with voracious appetites. The last 



ENCROACHMENT OF DESERT SANDS. 121 

we saw of them, they were lightmg on the parts above water, 
which would roll over and tip them in, and fighting for mor- 
sels. When they seized hold with their strong beaks, the grip 
was like that of a vice ; and, bracing their feet, the strength 
they exerted, in tearing bones and ligaments, was amazing. 

All the crew marched aft, in a body, and demanded back- 
shiesh, according to custom, on coming thus far up the river. 
We presented them one dollar and twenty-five cents, and they 
retired. Hassan continuing indisposed, it devolved on me to 
assist in cooking the dinner, rather than to go without. When 
the task was completed, I thought it would not have been 
worse to have gone hungry. 

The sun went down in a sea of glory. Here we came to a 
dreary waste of sandy desert, — a true type of Arabia Deserta. 
The Sand came close down to the water, leaving" not an inch 
of fertile land. The encroachment of the desert here is an 
illustration of the manner it has been creeping on upon the soil 
through past ages. There are gaps where, instead of sand, on 
the eastern bank, there are walls of limestone, laid in courses, 
like Cyclopsean masonry, raised from forty to two hundred feet, 
almost perfectly perpendicular. At the top the sand has accu- 
mulated, by being driven up on the back side, giving a gentle 
inclined plain down to the common hard gravel level towards 
the desert. Without wind, the progress up the muddy, angry 
Nile is excessively fatiguing. It is a solemn kind of feeling, at 
nine o'clock at night, without a breath of air, to be rowing and 
poling up this murky, mysterious river. The moon was shin- 
ing magnificently; and there stood, a little way ofi', a milk-white 
ibis, gazing at us, as though wondering who we could be, dis- 
turbing the quiet of its home, — for our wild Arabs began to 
chant one of their monotonous howls, of " 0-ah, Mohammed." 

Nov. 18th. Monday. — Winds are no more to be relied 
11 



122 A PILGRIMAGE TO EGYPT. 

upon here than a politician's promises. Although the indica- 
tions were flattering for a good run through the past night, we 
were obliged to haul up to the bank early in the evening, in a 
pleasant, though somewhat lonely spot. A grass fire blazing up 
occasionally, near where we lay, induced us to push the plank 
ashore, and walk to where the smoke and flashes were seen. 
A man and woman sat on the ground, by the side of a hencoop, 
roasting millet-heads in the hot ashes, made from halfar grass, 
the only fuel to be had. With genuine Arabic hospitality, of 
which we had read, but had never been the recipients, they 
invited us to lay hold and eat. Two children, as nearly naked 
as they could be and yet be covered, were asleep, with' their grimy 
caputs within a foot of the embers, and near enough to have 
singed their hair, if they had had any. Every child and man 
has the head shaven as bare as the palm of the hand. There 
is no deviation from the universal practice, — poor or rich, from 
infancy to extreme old age. Every current of .smoke was 
driven into their dirty faces ; but they slept on, regardless of all 
annoyances ; for nature is imperative, and refuses to relinquish 
her claim upon young animals, while she is fashioning and 
finishing their bodies. It is only when they are in profound' 
slumber that she can carry on her delicate internal operations. 
They must be still while the tubes are elongated and the valves 
are fitted ; and, by throwing them into a deep sleep, she is not 
interrupted in her mechanical manipulations. 

Vast fields of millet, resembling Indian-corn in stalks and 
leaves, extend up and down, and far back from the river. A 
tuft of seeds — the mass taking a pine-apple shape — grows 
from the extreme point ; and, as it approximates a full develop- 
ment, bends over the stalk droopingly, and thus ripens. This 
has been an extremely hot day, — a New England dog-day, — 
and, withal, washing-day. An instinctive desire to be in a 



PROGRESS OF THE JOURNEY. 123 

better condition than the demi-nude people about us, is the 
apology for engaging in a series of domestic pursuits, which 
have been learned through a stern, uncompromising necessity. 
There was something supposed to require ironing; but the 
wrinkles were excessively obstinate, and refused to be smoothed, 
under the hardest pressure. The strangest thing of all, how- 
ever, — a mystery not yet cleared up, — the washed garments 
looked worse, after all that had been done to them, than they 
did before being operated upon. Instead of obliterating wadees 
of soiled spots, Nile mud had become alarmingly conspicuous 
where it was the least welcome. We solaced ourselves by the 
comforting conclusion that it was only an optical deception, and 
thus ended the first attempt at the labors of the laundry. 

Date-trees were numerous, even to the appearance of a for- 
est, as we approached Minieh, the second great town in Upper 
Egypt. A French guide-book says that various fruit-trees 
abound all the way from Benisooef, which is untrue. No other 
kind of tree but the tall date-palm has been recognized, with 
the exception of some acacias, and perhaps a few other non- 
fruit bearers, of no particular interest on account of their qual- 
ities or appearance. 

Nov. 19th. Tuesday. -— As usual, the wind died away 
before sundown, leaving the boat to be hauled, against the cur- 
rent, to the first place the reis considered a safe one, — which 
means where other boats have made fast. These fluviatic 
Arabs are such arrant cowards, they try to conceal their native 
pusillanimity by pretending that it is dangerous to make a halt 
for the night at any other than certain stereotyped localities 
they have cautiously selected. In this instance, we came up 
broadside to the village of Galsan, — pronounced, by Hassan, 
Goncelo, — which is on the west bank, not ten miles from 
Minieh. A little back from the river, there is an amazing 



124 A PILGRIMAGE TO EGYPT. 

accumulation of stuff that constitutes a mound, on and about 
which are the usual mud hovels. Date-trees were numerous, 
with a scattering of gum-trees, considerably resembling our 
garden damson-plum, but giving no fruit. One quite large boat 
was on the stocks, well made, considering the joinery powers 
and lack of mechanical ingenuity of those at work upon it. 

A large tent, for shading cofFee-drinkers or loungers, was within 
a rod or two of us. Several young women within it were sing- 
ing a song, that must have delighted Arabic ears more than ours. 
At the repetition of certain words, an outburst of delight was 
sure to follow. A mat was spread in front, on the bare ground, 
and an invitation extended for us to sit upon it. This we 
declined, for a sufficient reason. A stroll along the bank 
brought to view a boat with an English flag. It was from 
Alexandria, with an English gentleman and his lady. Being 
a heavy, old, water-soaked concern, it dragged slowly, even 
under the exertions of a capital breeze, of which he complained 
bitterly. He was without a dragoman, with a crew of ten 
men. 

On leaving the pinning-ground, this morning, three vener- 
able-looking Arabs presented themselves, — two with staffs, 
and the third bearing a long pole tipped with an ugly iron 
spear, — and demanded a port charge for giving us safety 
through the night, within their jurisdiction. They represented 
themselves to be the true guardians of the public. The 
bill was seven cents, American currency, which was readily 
paid. For more than two miles, on leaving this resting-place, 
the bank of the river, on the right hand, alternated between 
twelve and fifteen feet in height above the water, in which 
there were bits of brick, broken pottery, and various other 
relics of civilization, interspersed throughout the exposed sur- 
face. Had the water been lower, unquestionably the same 



COPTISH BEGGAE-MOKKS. 125 

articles would have been seen still deeper down in the alluvium. 
It presupposes the habitation of a multitude of human beings, 
to have produced such a vast collection of fragments; but, 
could the level of the city or town have been fifteen feet lower 
than at present ? If it were so, then the bed of the Nile must 
have been lower, also. The whole land level is higher than it 
was, within the grasp of history ; and if that fact is admitted, 
then the bed of the river has been raised in a corresponding 
ratio, and therefore maintains the same relation to the surface 
that it did some thousands of years ago. Unless the current 
transported these brick, stone and bits of earthen vessels, to 
their present position, from some locality of an ancient town, 
it is morally certain the region round about has been gradually 
rising from an incalculably remote epoch. Near or remote, it 
is equally certain that these silent witnesses in the bank tes- 
tify to two important circumstances in relation to Eg}^pt : 
namely, that human beings were here to make them ; and, 
further, that the river has cut away a vast body of the same 
artificial kind of land, — another and irresistible evidence of 
the perpetual activity and changing character of the Nile, from 
one side to the other. 

Crowds of men, women and children, were passing up stream 
on foot, — some on donkeys and others on camels, — probably 
to a fair. When opposite Gebel Tier, a long range of lime- 
stone rocks, close to the left bank, — celebrated as being, tra- 
ditionally, the place where the birds formerly held an annual 
congress, — two stout Coptish monks, from an old monastery 
behind the ledge, swam out, and seized the side of the boat, 
begging furiously, at the top of their voices, for wine. We 
had seen them running a considerable distance, on a marshy, 
swampy plane, naked as they were bom, till about opposite, 
when in they plunged, and soon came up alongside, puffing 
11# 



126 A PILGRIMAGE TO EGYPT. 

and blowing like sea-lions. Backshiesh was on their lips, as 
everywhere else. They called us Christos, and made various 
overtures to convince us they were good Christians, by begging 
for backshiesh. With three fingers they clung to the gunwale, 
and were dragged ahead at a rapid rate. One of them kept 
repeating Hoiuadji Christanos, as much as to say. Christian 
gentlemen. Their beards were long and black, their heads 
shaven smooth as glass, while their white, beautifully-sound 
teeth, were advantageously shown by opening their mouths to 
show they were empty. Brandy was the drink they most 
wanted. Two empty bottles were thrown to them ; one drained 
the last reluctant drops, and then the cry was for wine. 

At three o'clock, p. m., arrived at Minieh, the residence of 
another governor, and the site of ruins. From tradition and 
the historians, we learn that this was a town of importance, 
thousands of years ago. Great events transpired in this 
dusty, thirsty, uninviting Arab town, before the birth of Abra- 
ham. All the streets were narrow, and commanded at each 
extremity by wooden doors. Policemen, or officers of the army, 
— we could not be certain which, — with their belts stuck full 
of large, heavy horse-pistols, were lounging about in the bazaar, 
and cooling themselves where a shade was to be had. One 
swarthy fellow, strutting about, with an expression of singular 
importance, had a wooden sword, — quite as useful to him as 
one of steel. They are notorious cowards, and rarely use 
their arms till they are positively sure there is no danger; or 
when goaded on by task-masters in the rear, who would kill 
them did they not kill those in front. There was nothing to 
be seen in the bazaars but soft bread, tobacco, pipes, eggs, fowls, 
and coarse articles of hard ware. The women were in the 
majority, lounging in the alleys and streets. 

There is a splendid sugar-manufacturing house there, under 



AN ARAB PATIENT. 127 

the management of a French engineer. The sugar was of the 
best quality. A heap of animal bones in the yard astonished 
us. At first sight, the collection of carcasses was startling. 
They are converted into coal, and used in clarifying the sugar. 
Great fields of growing cane extended far into the distance. 
Water was raised by a steam pump, poured into mud-trenches, 
and thus distributed over the roots of the growing crops. 

Nov. 20th. — ■ With incessant pulling and tugging, we suc- 
ceeded in getting a few miles from Minieh, and, unwillingly, 
laid by for the night. At early dawn, the village was scoured 
for fresh provisions, which, at the end of three hours, resulted 
in the purchase of eight half-starved chickens. I begin to 
loathe them, from being obliged to feed on poultry the whole 
time. Hassan cooked them better than anything; — our praise 
of his skill made him ambitious to stew a hecatomb of them. 
One Arab, in a cabin nearly opposite the tombs of Beni Has- 
san, sought my advice, having incidentally ascertained that I 
was a hakem, or doctor. He had a singularly tumefied abdo- 
men, probably from gorging on green roasted millet. Poor 
creature ! — he had a comfortless home in a mud hovel. He 
was lying on a straw mat in a corner, on the ground, — the 
only floor, in a dark room, eight feet square by six high. 
There was neither a window or a particle of furniture, beyond 
a sieve, coarse as a cane-seat chair-bottom. The door was so 
low that I had to shorten one -half to enter. All the women in 
the neighborhood rushed in, while groups of heavy-bearded men, 
wild, strong and restless in their movements, blocked up the 
outside. It was necessary to have them open right and left to 
obtain light enough to see the patient. Being in a dark 
region, the females dropped their veils, which gave me a fair 
opportunity of scanning their features, they being between me 
and the light. They were excessively ugly and dirty. They 



128 A PILGRIMAGE TO EGYPT. 

4 

all squatted on the ground, intently watching my motions, and 
curiously gazing at the paper of little powders, unrolled, in 
pursuit of something appropriate for the swelled fellah. 
Whether the active cathartic that was given removed the dif- 
ficulty, is unknown. His care-worn expression, the misery 
that surrounded him, the moral darkness that must have been 
his accompaniment through life, and the social condition of the 
community with which he was identified, were so forcibly im- 
pressed upon my mind, that I cannot forget him. Nile water, 
raw or roasted millet, sheets of soft black bread, baked in the 
hot ashes of grass and cow-dung, are the principal articles of 
food, for well or sick, which are within the reach of these poor 
people. The exactions of the local governors and sheiks take 
from them the few luxuries that might be occasionally used 
under a milder system of government. 

Business increased rapidly, by finding medicine and visiting 
gratuitously. By sundown I should have had an immense 
practice, had we remained. One of the crew became indis- 
posed. One of his aquatic associates had the reputation of 
being a doctor, and therefore he was consulted, instead of 
myself. This was gratifying, because it gave me an oppor- 
tunity of witnessing the native medication. First, the patient's 
head was thoroughly manipulated, much as the magnetizers 
proceed ; he then pulled both ears smartly, till they were red, 
stroked the head from the crown to the forehead, and then 
pinched the scalp into longitudinal wrinkles, by nipping it with 
his fingers. Dampening his fingers, he gently rubbed the 
spine and arms. Suddenly he jerked the poor dog's neck from 
side to side, as though he were trying to snap it off. Some 
hot water was poured into the ears. Next the navel was 
tenderly touched with tepid water, as cautiously as though it 
were the apple of the eye. When those external acts were 



INDIGO-MAKING. 129 

through, I gave him a cup of tea, and Yasack retired under a 
plank for repose, where two turkeys, a goose, a cat, a basket of 
charcoal, a bag of potatoes, and all the rats, were lodged. 

On pulling up the mooring-pin, the last time, one of the crew 
was still strolling on shore, to overtake us. He must have run 
several miles on the bank, when the boat sheered in, and he 
sprang on board. A few words were heard, when the reis flew 
at him with the ferocity of a tiger, and beat him unmercifully, 
when a blow was not diverted by the culprit's hand. The 
scuffle was spirited, for a few moments, the reis striking with 
a piece of rope ; but the sailor was strong, and, had he dared, 
he might have sent his master overboard with a kick. When 
the affray had ended, the reis laid down the rope, faced the 
holy city of Mecca, bowed reverentially, and then went calmly 
through the prescribed prayers. A question, subsequently, 
being raised in regard to the true direction of Mecca, — some 
facing towards a point different from others, — a map and 
compass were produced, and the matter settled; the reis 
manifesting evident gratification on being confirmed by those 
witnesses that he was right. 

We came to a cleared field, where, the crop being off, the 
manner of making indigo was examined. Two men, with a 
strip of cloth about their loins, wearing caps, were stirring the 
boiling mass in earthen pots, sunk into earth, when we came 
in sight. To ascertain whether they stood in fear of howadjis, 
I made the following experiment : As soon as our eyes met, 
I ran towards them as swiftly as my feet would go, when 
away they ran into the millet-stalks, at a deer's speed, and 
that was the last of them. They doubtless thought that we 
were impressing soldiers, and therefore instantly ran beyond 
our reach. 

To-day we passed several rafts, entirely composed of earthen 



130 A PILGRIMAGE TO EGYPT. 

pots, with their mouths up, lashed together ingeniously by 
strips of rattan binding and bamboo poles. Men walked over 
them, as they do on timber-rafts on the Rhine, and on the St. 
Lawrence, in Canada. They were bailing constantly, stepping 
from one vessel to the other. The pots, being unglazed, leaked, 
of course. A rag, dipped in, imbibed the water; and thus 
they were perpetually on the watch, that none of them should 
get too full, and drag the rest to the bottom. Went by a town, 
on the river-bank, that has been singularly cut away by the 
never-tiring Nile, which is now undermining the inhabitants. 
Saw a very large number of sakkias. Some of the hard work- 
ers, who were laboring at them, were white, like Europeans ; 
consequently, the contrast with the bronze or brassy hue of 
others, by the side of them, was striking. Went ashore to 
inspect some valuable sugar-machinery, excellent in finish, 
from France. 

Nov. 21st. Thursday. — This day was unusually monoto- 
nous, and unproductive of incidents. We progressed very 
slowly, the wind being both light and flawy. Lost sight of 
the Englishman's boat. Walked on the eastern bank about 
two miles, this forenoon, which afforded a good opportunity for 
ascertaining the land culture. Patches of tobacco, a few beans, 
and sugar-cane, were common ; but millet was the predominant 
crop. Ridges of mud were raised, beginning at the shadoof, 
which conducted the water, when drawn, to every root and 
hillock on the field. Farming in November consists mainly 
in drawing water for irrigation, and in making preparation for 
sowing some kind of seed. Saw a few good horses, hampered ; 
some poor sheep, one of which was purchased ; seveml well-fed 
buffaloes, and one or two young camels. A boy was fishing, at 
a turn in the river, by suddenly plunging a wicker basket, 
inverted, into the water. He then thrust his hand through a 



OSIOOT. 131 

hole, and caught the prisoners, and threw them on the ground. 
The Nile must be plentifully stocked, to have them numerous 
enough to be thus taken, in shallow places. The boys even 
waded in the muddy water, and easily took considerable num- 
bers of lively little scaled fish, in the same manner. 

Nov. 22d. Friday. — A day of dulness ; no wind, of any 
consequence, since last evening; consequently, our advance 
onward has been vexatiously unsatisfactory. The river was 
tortuous, and, while musing on its freaks, in cutting first into 
one bank and then shooting across to the other, we passed by 
Manfaloot, having a governor, with a residence for him, christ- 
ened a palace. It is probably the site of an ancient town. The 
name signifies the place of ivild asses ; while, according to the 
traditions of the inhabitants, it means the place of exile of Lot. 
It is pretended that the holy family resided in this town till 
after the death of Herod. The river has rapidly washed away 
a part of the town, and may soon sweep oflf the remainder. 
Beni Ali, back of the town, and quite near the Libyan desert, 
was the spot where Mohammed Ali had his Nizam, or best 
troops, drilled for exploits in the Morea. Thousands of wild 
geese were flying overhead, and lighting on the shoals and 
exposed mud-bars. 

Nov. 23^. Saturday. — Through much loss of time, wind- 
ings of the river, and lack of wind, we did not arrive at the 
great town of Osioot, with its twenty thousand inhabitants, till 
noon. It is over a mile and a half from the port, or landing- 
place, back to the settlement. It is the site of the famed 
ancient city of Lycopolis, or city of the wolves, and the abode 
of the governor of Upper Egypt. So rapidly has the land 
been formed, that the river is actually crowded nearly two 
miles to the east from its old channel. We passed the cata- 
combs of the dogs, up in the rocks, beyond the town. A major- 



132 A PILGRIMAGE TO EGYPT. 

ity of the dwellings are mud ; some are of old broken bricks, 
that may have been used a hundred times before. I counted 
nine minarets, — a proof of their being nine mosques. Rode 
through the lane-streets, dubbed bazaars, on donkeys. We 
were objects of amusement to the quiet native lookers-on. My 
high-crowned black hat was more astonishing than our white 
faces. A prisoner was led by us, on foot, with both hands 
keyed into a heavy piece of square timber, apparently over two 
feet long by six inches square, from whence iron trace-chains 
reached to his neck, and, perhaps, feet. He was preceded by 
an officer on horseback, and followed by soldiers with guns. 
An ass-driver gave me to understand that he would be shot ; 
but capital punishments are virtually abolished in Egypt ; and, 
therefore, the prisoner's crime was to be atoned for in some 
other way, savagely cruel, and, no doubt, worse than death. 

The grain mart was on a wide kind of bridge, spanning a 
canal, on one side of which, and thence some way into the 
street, finely-developed Arab dealers in grain were gravely 
seated on the bare ground, by the side of heaps of peas, beans, 
barley, and some other kinds of seed, not familiar to me. They 
wore white turbans, had heavy coal-black beards, and were 
smoking in dignified silence, as we ambled over their feet, and 
between their piles of property. Mr. Holland had written a 
letter, which he wished to mail at this place for Cairo. With 
a good deal of inquiry,^ the post-master was found ; but the 
superscription must necessarily be in Arabic, or no one could 
send it to its destination. Accompanied by Hassan, it took 
half -an hour, at least, in the busy streets, to find a man who 
could write. The post-master kept close to his heels till the 
direction was written, and then took the postage in advance. 
We here purchased groceries, charcoal, and native bread ; and, 
on returning to the boat, were met by the crew, in a body, 



EGYPTIAN TKEATHENT OK BIRDS. 133 

demanding backshiesh again, which was given, as on a former 
occasion. 

A flock of noisy wild geese flew over head, to-day, that were 
judged to extend several miles in a continuous line. Their 
numbers exceeded by ten-fold all flights of them in other 
countries with which we are familiar. They feared us, and 
shunned the near approach of the boat; but were rarely dis- 
turbed by the sight of Arabs. They either learned, on other 
continents, that the Christians are waging a perpetual warfare 
with all feathered tribes, or the bad usage they have had meted 
out to them by the hands of foreigners, when they arrive in 
Egypt, induces them to shun all but the natives at sight. "We 
have a bad reputation with the birds. How is it that Moham- 
medans, in their intercourse with animals, are so much more 
humane than the most pious and exemplary professors of reli- 
gion? They are without mercy towards each other, when 
heated by passion, yet they are trustworthy and abiding friends 
of beasts and birds. Witnessed from the boat a real knock- 
down fight; both turbans and rope's ends flew about, like 
feathers in a whirlwind ; but, as the combatants hurt no one 
but themselves, we cared nothing about it. When coming out 
of the town, through a gateway raised upon a dike, we noticed, 
with more earnestness than when we entered, the rows of sol- 
diers, armed with swords and pistols, squads of grain-dealers, 
and long lines of Arab gentlemen seated on mother earth, 
smoking. Saw some ploughing going on in a field; the plough 
was a natural crook of wood, and the team, two cows. 

Nov. 2Uh. Sunday. — A tolerable run, after leaving Osioot, 
through last night. A boisterous wind, to-day, in blasts and 
squalls, which brought the sand from the desert in a fine sheet ; 
we could see it, at times, in admirable commotion. Had we 
been in the midst of it, three or four miles ofi', it would have 
12 



134 A PILGRIMAGE TO EGYPT. 

given us all the features of a sand-storm. Early last evening 
we laid by a short time, in a bend of the river ; and, hearing 
the sound of merriment, and seeing the flashes of a grass fire, 
a lantern was prepared, and off we started, in search of the 
jollification, — a very unusual circumstance in an Arabic set- 
tlement, where nothing but^the barking of dogs is heard after 
the shades of evening prevail. Flat on the ashes and rubbish, 
in one corner of a roofless, floorless house, sat an elderly 
woman, beating a sort of drum, resembling a rough tamborine, 
while seven or eight girls — her companions in ashes — were 
clapping their hands in unison, beating time. In another dark 
corner were some swarthy, turbaned Arabs, whom we should 
not have seen, had not a flash of fresh grass revealed their 
persons. They were silently smoking, and listening, with 
apparent pleasure, to the discordant sounds of the female per- 
formers. Hassan said this was the celebration of a marriage 
in low life; — just as low as it could be,, without digging; — 
and the bride may have been her husband's fortieth wife, for 
aught I know to the contrary, as the men are perpetually 
divorcing their wives, on the most trivial pretexts, and supply- 
ing the vacancy in their capacious hearts by the immediate 
espousal of another. 

Not far from this is a celebrated stone, which is visited by 
females from a distance, who address it as though it were con- 
scious, and leap over it, praying they may be the mother of 
many children. They are never satisfied with the number 
they have, — and yet they are astonishingly prolific. Even 
little girls ape the manners of their elders, and leap the stone 
for dear life. A woman who has outdone all her neighbors in 
bearing children is a gem. Multiply is the sentiment impressed 
on every eastern mind, — for children are power. Sons are a 



DOMESTIC CHAEACTER OE NATIVES. 135 

glory to a mother. " What father puts away the mother of 
his sons ? " asks the Arab wise man. ^ 

Although passing, every hour or two, the sites of gi'eat towns, 
either of early Egyptian or Coptish origin, it is scarcely worth 
Avhile to write what tradition says of them. Came in sight of 
Gowel Kebeer, where a vast temple once stood, dedicated to 
Antaeus. Proceeding upward, great mounds came into view, 
— the reliable evidences of a to\vn having once been on them. 
Gebel Shekh Hereedee, another point on the river, upon our 
track, was reputed once to have been the home of a monstrous 
serpent, that cured all diseases. Saw in the afternoon, on the 
east side, square door entrances into the limestone rocks, 
seventy feet or more above the base. Four or five were near 
together; then considerable space intervened, and another 
series was presented, along the range of natural masonry. 
There must have been mechanical skill, patience and fearless- 
ness, in those wdio worked their way into the mountain in that 
manner. Doubtless these excavations were receptacles for the 
dead. They extended some miles, before they were finally lost 
sight of. Read parts of the Old Testament that made refer- 
ence to the customs of Egypt at the period in which they were 
written ; and was satisfied no great changes in the domestic 
character of the inhabitants have been effected since, although 
the Arabs are comparatively new comers. They copied the 
habits and domestic arrangements of their predecessors, who 
had followed in the footsteps of a still more remote people; 
and, therefore, the aspect of every-day life in the Nilotic val- 
ley is nearly what it has been for thousands of years. 

Nov. 2dth. Monday. — To our extreme gratification, this 
has been a windy day. Strange, how gentlemen of common 
sense can find nothing more agreeable than wind for a topic, in 
the focus of the grandest ruins on the globe ; but it is a mem- 



136 A PILGRIMAGE TO EGYPT. 

orable fact, we were sometimes actually straitened for conver- 
sational subjects. Under circumstances like these, there was 
nothing to say, when one might have expected nothing short 
"of learned disquisitions on the wisdom of the Egyptians, of 
which those discourse the most enthusiastically who know the 
least about it. It is by no means certain that the liege subjects 
of the monarchs of the Nile had any wisdom at all. All the 
wind we have is invariably from the west. This shows the 
advantage of making the voyage at the season when it takes 
the trade character. 

As heretofore, mounds of old settlements are all the while 
coming within the range of vision ; some are near, and others 
remote. There is not an inch of soil on either side the vener- 
able Nile, from the Mediterranean to the Mountains of the 
Moon, that has not been in the occupancy of human beings, 
since they first set foot on the land. Mud villages, millet- 
fields, and, frequently, a patch of new grain, are recognized. 
There are no pastures, no grass-fields, or swells of cultivated 
ground. The farms are on a dead level, and must be regularly 
watered, or nothing can grow. Dates are the principal trees ; 
clusters of locusts are raised for timber ; but they are not large, 
and, when hewn, six feet is beyond the average length of a 
stick free from knots and crooks. Out of these the boats are 
manufactured. All the men, women and children, dress here 
precisely as they do all the way down to Alexandria. 

Passed, this morning, the town of Ekhmim, the site of one 
of the largest cities of the Thebiad, or province of Thebes. 
Shall have more to say of it, and of those places we omit in 
ascending, on our return. Two miles further, passed a Copt 
convent, on the east bank, located on a mound. Although 
these Christian solitaries are single men, — matrimony not 
being tolerated, because it would divert them from the con tern- 



LUDICROUS INCIDENT. 137 

plation and practice of their faith, — they have wives, says 
some slanderous authority. My opinion is, that the Coptish 
Christian church does not forbid the marriage of monks. Has- 
san, who travelled with a distinguished man, some years since, 
up this very course, assured us that his master purchased a 
Nubian slave woman, who became a favorite, and on whom he 
settled a pension, that was continued till she died. Hassan 
speaks of having seen Miss Martineau, a woman who heard 
with a big ting in her ear. The desert encroaches upon the 
river along here, in all the dreariness of bare stone, on the east 
side, quite touching the water, for some miles. Hassan gave 
us some statistical memoranda of this neighborhood. At 
Thebes, he says, an Arab fellah died, last season, who had 
forty children by three wives, namely, twenty-five sons and 
fifteen daughters. Most of the former are now men grown. 
Saw as many as three hundred very large white pelicans 
together, on a bar of mud. Just back of Ekhmim is a stone, 
to which females resort, on account of its singular properties of 
making those fruitful who repeat certain appropriate words 
over it, and remain a certain period for rest and meditation. 
It is, probably,"an old sculptured fragment of a long ago 
destroyed temple. 

iVoy. '^^th. Tuesday. — While walking through the bazaar 
of Girgeh, a finely-dressed Arab, in a tarbousch, immense 
trousers, with, two big pistols sticking in his sash, came up, with 
a patronizing air, and, before we were aware of his intentions, 
appeared to be showing us off to the natives. He patted me 
on the back, saying tihe^ in a low voice, meaning good ; when 
the Rev. Mr. Holland stepped in front, and told him, in an 
unmistakable language, to right about face, or he would knock 
him into another week. He took the hint, and gladly made 
his exit, to the amusement of the astonished looking-on smokers. 
12^ 



138 ' A PILGRIMAGE TO EGYPT. 

At four o'clock, p. m., yesterday, the reis insisted upon stopping 
at Girgeh, to bake bread; and, as it was stipulated in the con- 
tract that twenty-four hours should be allotted for that purpose, 
no objections could be made that would avail, although it was 
excessively provoking to halt in a favorable breeze, when the 
business of running against a strong current was the first to be 
attended to, till the end of the voyage was attained. I advise 
all future voyagers on the Nile, in making a boat-bargain, on 
no account to give an hour for this bread-baking. It is only a 
scheme for delay, to prolong the trip, and get more money ; or, 
rather, pay, without rendering an equivalent. 

Early this morning, donkeys were procured for an inland 
excursion; but they came without saddles or bridles. We 
were bound to the celebrated ruins of Abydos. The little, fuzzy, 
long-eared brutes looked as though they might be laughing 
in their skins at their own shabby appearance. Mine was 
guided with a stick ; but the driver took the cord that confined 
his shirt round the waist, and laid it across the ridge-pole back 
of the wise-looking quadruped, into the ends of which my toes 
found a bearing ; and the remainder of the jaunt was made 
tolerably comfortable, for a bare-back ride, in a hot sun, seven 
miles, without saddle or bridle. Abydos was the city of cities, 
in the glorious days of Egyptian greatness. It was here that 
Osiris and Rameses the Great were buried. Unnecessary 
alarm was raised about the danger of the expedition. A guide 
refused to budge, unless he had assistants. This was a trick to 
get more money than could otherwise be realized. Having 
learned something of Arabic character by the little intercourse 
had with them since entering the country, we started off* with 
a guide, two donkeys, and one single driver, without a guard; 
and arrived, without molestation or hindrance, at the massive 
ruins of the buried temples. The guide carried a long stick. 



RUINS OF ABYDOS. 139 

His venerable beard, huge hot turban on a shaven head, spare, 
bare spindle-shanks, and solemn aspect, amused us exceedingly. 
He seemed to feel the importance of his elevated position, as 
he walked before us almost as fast as our sheep-sized asses 
could scramble over the path, urged and goaded in the rear by 
their attendant tormentor. 

We made a satisfactory exploration of the magnificent ruins. 
There are two temples, nearly concealed by the accumulation 
of sand from the Libyan desert. They were probably on an 
eminence, in the centre of a highly-cultivated plain, that 
inclined to the river, which once flowed within half a mile of 
them. It is now several miles to the river, — the tendency 
being, as it has been for an undefined period, toward the east- 
ern desert. The roofs of both edifices were fiat, and made of 
enormous blocks of stone. Here and there one was broken, so 
that we could squeeze in and get underside, which would be 
the very top of the ceiling, had the spacious apartments been 
empty. There is a mystery in regard to the filling up of these 
and some other immense structures we have seen. Sand does 
not make the mass within ; on the contrary, broken bricks, 
stones of unequal sizes, pottery, loam, bones of animals, &c., 
are as compactly stowed, as though carried in with a view to 
filling up the interior. One of the buildings is called the pal- 
ace, and the other a temple. The pillars — which we got to 
by crawling with a lighted candle — are immensely large, and 
covered with reliefs, of very wonderful execution. While some 
were large, others were minute ; but the exquisite finish was 
surprising, and just as perfect in all its details as when it 
was completed by the mechanics who executed it. On the 
walls, too, there were immense numbers of figures, such as are 
everywhere recognized on Egyptian monuments. This burying 
of such immense edifices must have been brought about by 



140 A PILGRIMAGE TO EGYPT. 

sand-Storms, which finally drove away the people who resided 
near these sacred places ; and, in process of time, they were 
both neglected and forgotten. A short distance to the west of 
these great works of art, we saw the base of a monolith, like 
those in Rome, and the one in Paris, and particularly resem- 
bling Cleopatra's Needle, at Alexandria. It was five feet square. 
My curiosity was raised to ascertain how it was possible to 
break off a column of stone of such dimensions without wrench- 
ing the remaining portion from its perpendicular position. The 
shaft of the obelisk is, no doubt, under the sand, quite near. 
Fragments, two miles west, indicate extensive settlements to 
have existed once on that spot. 

Abydos is now called Arabat el Matfoon, or The hurled. 
Whether a canal originally ran from the Nile to the magnifi- 
cent ruins, or the river swept near by, are questions. I am 
quite inclined to the opinion that the river was there. In the 
time of Strabo, Abydos had become a mere village ; but, in its 
glory, it was only second to Thebes. In the general survey of 
the remains of Egyptian architecture, a reference will be made 
to these great works again. A vast cemetery, as old as Osir- 
tasin I., — who reigned 1740 years before Christ, — and other 
early Pharaohs, and some of the ovals containing the name of 
Rameses the Great, have been identified. The face of the 
projecting rocks, raised up on the brow of the desert, are cut 
into, very high up. These are grottoes, and, not unlikely, deep 
recesses, that might have been tombs of the most distinguished 
of the people in the age in which they were wrought. Through- 
out Egypt, preparations for death seem to have been the lead- 
ing thought. 

Being announced as a doctor, the whole population of a mis- 
erable village, half a mile distant, flocked together round the 
corner of the mighty fabric, on the top of which we were then 



MORE EGYPTIAN PATIENTS. 141 

sitting, for reflection and luncheon, having completed our 
researches into the splendid but debased interior. One had a 
sore on the back of his neck; a second, a lame knee; and 
others, both real and imaginary maladies. Keen black-eyed 
boys; light-footed, gazelle-eyed Arab girls, timid as fawns; 
together with bronzed, hard-featured men, — all of whom 
startled like wild birds whenever we turned round, shifted 
seats, or made any unusual movements, — clustered about 
us. They watched our eating operations ; gazed with intense 
interest on the different kinds of food we had, as much as to 
say, that is extraordinary. If a bit of hard biscuit were given 
any one of them, all the rest encircled him for a taste. Two 
savage fellows came down over the rocks, out of the desert, and 
entered the group ; but the universal sentiment was that they 
should be driven off; and away they went, while the rabble 
were hooting and screaming after them, as they ran for their 
desolate retreat over the hills. A fellow wanted his pulse exam- 
ined, to know what I thought of his health. Putting on Mr. 
Holland's gold-bowed spectacles, and holding a stone between 
my eyes and his wrist, as though inspecting it, he started back 
with surprise. He wanted to look through the stone, also ; but 
I hesitated. As he expressed some doubt about my ability to 
look through it, he was told to put his hand under the block on 
which I was sitting, — which was all of four feet square, — and, 
with the glasses, I pretended to inspect it. One of the won- 
dering spectators expressed a desire to put on the magic glasses, 
to ascertain whether he could see through them. He was 
indulged, and the stone interposed between the object and his 
optics, when, lo ! as much to my surprise as that of the excited 
audience, he declared he could see the hand through the 
stone ! This was more than had been anticipated ; it satis- 



142 A PILGRIMAGE TO EGYPT. 

factorily explains how the imagination may assist believers in 
animal magnetism to see what is not to be seen. 

Very many of these shy creatures had antiques for sale, — 
coins, artificial bugs or beetles, bits of glass, and incompre- 
hensible figures, — which they valued, in most cases, beyond 
the means of their visiters. No doubt, they are continually 
finding remnants and memorials of the arts, some thousand 
years old, and will continue to, in all coming ages ; because the 
very soil and sand are strewn with them. The territory w'as 
originally circumscribed, which compressed the population into 
narrow boundaries; hence it would be surprising, indeed, 
should no evidences of a mechanical people be found, where 
one generation followed another, on the same localities, from 
two to four thousand years. 

When we returned to the boat, a Mohamxmedan priest was 
sitting, cross-legged, on Hassan's bench, where he slept, ear- 
nestly writing, on long, narrow strips of paper. This led to the 
inquiry what he was doing, and the purport of his visit in our 
absence. The answer was, that the holy man was preparing 
charms, to keep off fever. The lines written were from the 
Koran. He was assured that a remedy so simple was worth 
having, as three of the sailors had been feverish. Hassan 
was still debilitated from a slight attack, and doubtless felt 
unshaken confidence in the priestly conjurations. As the man 
of sanctimonious pretensions was stepping to the plank, one of 
the crew put money in his hand, which was pocketed, of 
course. I could perceive no difference, in the general outward 
air of superiority in these operators on the heart, conscience 
and credulity of their followers, and that of the priests of 
Rome. They both pretended to accomplish the same results, 
by different means ; and they certainly both took money for 
their heavenly intercessions. One seems quite as sincere as 



HOLY MEDICINAL CHARMS. 143 

the other. Hassan was rather unwell, with slight feverish 
symptoms, which may have induced him to avail himself of 
the influence of the preacher with the powers that afflict true 
believers. When the paras were put in the hand of the priest, 
he rolled up his eyes in a kind of pious expression, while his 
thin lips moved, perhaps with a benediction on the giver. I 
happened to pick up one of the charms on deck, which may 




v / -^ I \ c w% 







FAC SIMILE OP THE CHAKM. 



have been accidentally dropped. As no one inquired for it, 
it was retained as a curiosity. At evening, there was the 
smoke of frankincense puffing up from under the deck-planks, 
accompanied with the sweet odor of that favorite gum with the 
eastern churches. Some religious rites had probably been 
performed, of which this was a part, by direction of the spirit- 



144 A PILGRIMAGE TO EGYPT. 

ual adviser. It is quite common to see young camels, mules, 
&c., with charms sewed in a bit of canvas, and suspended to 
their necks, to keep off evil spirits, as well as the evil eye. 

Geese cost, in Girgeh, seventeen cents apiece ; a turkey, 
thirty-seven cents ; fowls, five cents ; and pigeons, five cents. 
We had quite an aviary on board ; and it was a pleasure to 
look at the domesticated family springing for every crumb that 
fell. The next place ahead, of character, was Thebes. One- 
eyed farmers became scarcer ; but those who were without the 
right forefinger, and had the two upper front teeth on the right 
side knocked out, still surprisingly numerous. Ophthalmia 
prevailed in the towns, but few cases were recognized in the 
small villages. The totally blind were painfully common 
everywhere. Small-pox must have been fatally prevalent 
through all this region, judging from the numbers who are 
pock-marked. While lying under the town, a dervish, with a 
long, flowing head of tangled hair, dressed with considerable 
taste, — a hale, muscular fellow, above the ordinary height, — 
took a stand on the side hill above us. After surveying the 
howadjis with a look of sovereign contempt, he exposed a 
copper horn, two feet or more in length, serrated on the outer 
circumference, so as to resemble the rough, knotted horn of the 
buffalo, on which he blew tremendously two long-continued 
blasts, sounding but a single note. It w^as incredible that he 
could have forced such a volume of wind from his lungs, and 
is yet a marvel how he could possibly maintain the sound so 
long without taking breath. When he did stop, he sent a 
boy, and demanded five paras for the trouble ! He was per- 
forming to raise money for a whirling community, of which he 
was a sample. 

Nov. 21th. — Nothing of interest; slow towing; reading, and 
examining into my domestic affairs, — such as clean handker- 



PIGEONS. 145 

chiefs and shirts ; — feeding poultry, and proclaiming the law, 
that they are to have food, air, water and humane treatment, 
from the unfeeling crew. Saw, for the first time, to-day, on 
the Nile, a huge crocodile, sunning himself. Hassan fired, 
without even disturbing the monster; but a second charge 
awoke him^ and "he slowly swayed off the mud-bank, and 
plunged out of sight. Saw on the bank several crates of colo- 
cynth, a vegetable production of the desert, of the size of 
oranges, strongly resembling them when divested of the rind. 
They are used in medicine, and grow spontaneously in the 
sand. When ripe, they are detached by the wind, and roll 
about, unless collected, till destroyed. Passed a boat entirely 
laden with pigeon-manure, — very dear, and much prized for 
raising rnelons. It seems to be the only kind of manure in 
which Egyptians place confidence. This explains why they 
give such general attention to pigeon raising, above all other 
accompaniments of the farm-yard. On both sides of the Nile, 
from the Mediterranean to Thebes, every village, and nearly 
every house, has stacks of earthen pots, laid horizontally, to 
the extent of hundreds, in which doves establish themselves. 
It is one of the curiosities of the country, to see so many mil- 
lions of these beautiful, graceful, inoifensive birds. They 
forage, of course, on the grain-fields; but they are neither 
driven oflT nor molested. We often saw crows following the 
sower, close to his heels, picking up the kernels rapidly ; but 
they were not even frightened away. Passed a cargo of char- 
coal, sewed up in grass mats. It came from Nubia, above 
Egypt. Wood is extremely scarce in this part of Egypt. No 
charcoal can be manufactured here, since there ifi no wood that 
can be spared for the purpose. Nine beggars seated them- 
selves before us, and simultaneously pressed their claims, 
which we did not trouble ourselves to investiofate. 
13 



146 A PILGRIMAGE TO EGYPT. 

Nov. 28th. Thursday. — Another windless night. It must 
appear ridiculous, to persons living on land, that travellers 
should have so much to say about wind. The fact is, it is a 
power on which they rely for being conveyed from one station 
to another, when their trail is on an African river. After 
breakfast, we commenced a long w^alk on the Libyan side, 
passing the trunks of several sycamores, full five feet in diam- 
eter. Saw a number of tamarasks, the sacred tree of Ancient 
Egypt, the shittim wood of the Old Testament. Waded 
through a field of halfar-grass, near which we saw two Arabs 
cutting off" two fallen date-trees, near the roots. Their axes 
were mere rude, light hatchets, and an adze. It \vas the effort 
of children in the result, and tedious beyond conception. I 
have often seen carpentejs at work in this country ; yet not one 
of them had a common hand-saw, but one stretched in a frame, 
similar to the wood-sawyer's, and of small size. Their efficient 
and all-sufficient tool is a small adze, which, in their slow 
hands, is an axe, hammer, chisel, and everything else but a 
chest of tools. A bow-drill is invariably used in the place of a 
gimblet, which last instrument seems to be unknown in Upper 
Egypt. Cut nails are not known ; every nail, spike or tack, is 
hammered out of wrought iron. The largest and best modern 
sugar-making establishment on the Nile is here, at Farshoot, 
and is the property of Achmet Bey, of Cairo. It is immense in 
all its appointments, giving employment to five hundred per- 
sons, chiefly natives, under the superintendence of a French- 
man. The sugar was beautifully white, and the engineer said 
the quantity sent to market annually was two million four 
hundred thousand pounds. The machinery is all of the mod- 
ern kind, made in France. The engines are kept in motion, 
and, in fact, all the processes are conducted, by steam ; and the 
fuel is wholly and entirely halfar-grass, — a high, coarse, sharp- 



A SUGAR MANUFACTORY. 147 

edged, wiry production, which cattle could not very well feed on, 
even when young, fresh and tender. It grows in tufts, very 
rank and stiff, — thousands of acres having been overgrown 
with it in the neighborhood. The Arabs were perpetually 
arriving with it, in dry bundles, on camels, unlading it in a 
yard. One piastre — equal to five cents — was paid for two 
hundred quintals. Labor could not be worth much, when hun- 
dreds of strong men were uninterruptedly engaged in bringing 
grass in that unprofitable manner. A dozen bundles would 
hardly weigh a hundred pounds. The firemen were inces- 
santly tucking it under the boilers. The rapidity with which 
an enormous quantity of the accumulated grass was burnt was 
a source of amazement; but the product quite as m.uch so. 
A cart-load would be consumed in an instant. Pretty fre- 
quently, the ashes had to be raked out, on account of their 
peculiar character. The mass had all the appearance and gen- 
eral character of scorias from a blacksmith's forge. Where 
such a quantity of iron could be found with that grass, on the 
extended alluvial plains on which it abounds, may exercise the 
ingenuity of a future geologist to unravel. The operatives 
were as nearly naked as they could be, and yet have a rag for 
decency. Some were skimming the boiling syrup, in that 
defenceless condition. It was a hot place within, as well as 
■^vithout ; but the overseer said they were never burned. A 
large w^ell being sunk, a few rods from the river, into which 
the water percolated laterally, it was raised by a stout steam- 
pump into a plastered trough, which conducted it to a cane- 
field. Some of it ran the distance of four miles. This estab- 
lishment was conducted on strictly scientific principles. The 
proprietor is far enough in advance of the ordinary Egyptian 
mind to give up the management to foreign Christian howadjis; 
and he is consequently making not only more sugar than 



148 A PILGRIMAGE TO EGYPT. 

any other manufacturer, but that of a superior quality. All 
the Arabs and Turks are consumers of sugar ; and the profits 
from the capital invested at Farshoot must far exceed the 
knowledge of Abbas Pasha's government, I apprehend ; because 
the prosperity of aa individual is a pretext, in a despotism, for 
unrighteous exactions. Possibly, the relationship of every one 
of the sugar manufacturers on the Nile to himself is the source 
of their security ; and it may also be possible that he prefers to 
have them amuse and profit themselves in that way, rather 
than to be meddling with the politics of the country, as all 
such royal relatives are inclined to do, where the constitution 
is the will of the person who rules the whole. 

We saw some immensely large hewn sandstones lying on 
the bank, covered with raised figures and symbolical charac- 
ters, — old Egyptian work, which had been brought from the 
eastern side, for purposes of common stone-masonry. They 
were said to have been a part of an ancient tomb. It was a 
pity to have such magnificent specimens of the learning and 
ingenuity of the ancient people broken up ruthlessly for such 
trifling and ignoble purposes. The masses of broken bricks, 
raised into heaps ten and twenty feet high, and strewn over 
the ground for a whole mile, besides infinite numbers of broken 
pieces imbedded in the soil, peeping out of the eroded bank, 
show that human beings and human labor have been here ; but 
who these were, or in what age the indestructible memorials of 
their thought and contrivance were fabricated, is lost to history. 

This was a working day. We came to an extraordinary 
curve of the river, w^hich actually carried us directly north, by 
the compass; yet the water comes from the south, and our 
course lays in that direction. This anomaly probably results 
from, a singular geological arrangement of the rock-beds, that 
has played a fantastic trick with the channel. 



FAITH OF HASSAN. 149 

Nov. 29th. Friday. — We did not move ten miles, after 
making up the log, yesterday, in consequence of the wind fail- 
ing. Nothing in sight worthy of record, nor any occurrence 
out of the common course. Hassan explained the nature of the 
Mohanamedan heaven, which, as a true and faithful believer, 
he fully expects to inherit. As he understands it, paradise is 
a place where there are fine houses, green fields, graceful trees, 
in connection with certain desirable accompaniments to the 
Moslem's happiness. A pious follower of the prophet is to 
have the possession of those comforts and physical enjoym.ents 
forever. The wicked, on the other hand, will be punished 
three thousand years, when Mohammed will look to it that all 
his followers on earth are ultimately liberated from hell, and 
comfortably provided for in the mansions of the blessed. A 
bad Mussulman, therefore, — one who neglects his five daily 
prayers, or is wilfully negligent of other great and indispensa- 
ble duties, — must undergo a punishment, temporarily, to 
impress upon his mind his own unworthiness, and the exalted 
mediatorial influence and grandeur of the author of his faith. 
In answer to the question, what he imagined would be the 
destiny of Christians, Hassan said that Christ would also look 
after his disciples ; and that all denominations would be mar- 
shalled under their several guides, and finally permitted to par- 
ticipate in the same category of physical enjoyments, in the 
same material paradise. 

Contrary to our expectations, the reis hauled up, nine miles 
below Keneh, at a place called Fow, for the night. High words 
ensued, and resort was had to the written contract, to deter- 
mine which party was in the right, — we insisting that we 
would proceed, and he declaring this the only safe position. 
Making a bustlinaf show of courag-e, and vociferatinaf that we 
feared nothing, stop where he might, the paper was produced. 
13# 



150 A PILGRIMAGE TO EGYPT. 

Unfortunately, Hassan, gentleman and scholar as he was, could 
not read ; neither could the reis. The document was written in 
Arabic, and one of the crew pretended he could decipher it ; 
but, not being willing to trust to his understanding of it, an 
appeal was made, at this juncture, to a resident on shore, who 
was reputed learned in the written language. A circle imme- 
diately gathered round the distinguished being who was to 
decide an important question between the high contracting 
parties. His preparation for reading, by casting wise, signifi- 
cant glances at the horribly crooked black scrawls, gave him evi- 
dent importance in the estimation of his bare-legged and bare- 
backed associates. -By and by, the mountain moved, when, 
lo ! he proclaimed that it was written so badly he could not 
read it at all ! Probably he could not, had it been ever so fair 
and distinct. It reminded me of the anecdote of a man who 
called to purchase a pair of glasses of a shop-keeper, who had 
advertised them under the name of helps-to-read. He tried on 
the whole stock in the shop ; but still he could not read a letter, 
simply because he had never learned how. Vexed with disap- 
pointment, on both sides, we prepared to move on, till a man 
could be found who could decipher the paper. In the mean 
time, the reis fastened up for repose. Whenever the beetle 
with leather rings was brought from its hiding-hole, it was 
always an indication that a snooze was contemplated. It was 
announced to him that the guard he might employ would not 
be paid by us, if he persisted in his obstinacy. He chose to 
abide the consequences. 

There happened to be at Fow quite a company of dancing- 
girls, — the first we had seen, — who were accompanied by three 
musicians, native performers, whose skill we had a desire to 
witness. A grave, white-bearded Arab sat on the ground, 
within a mud-walled yard, of small dimensions, with a kind of 



EGYPTIAN MUSICIANS. 



151 



violin, the rudest contrivance for extracting music we had ever 
seen ; yet he produced a stave or two of a melancholy air, sad 
as the face of grief, and the least inspiring of all sounds for 
stimulating a dance. There were but two strings, which were 




sawed to and fro by a horse-hair bow, held in the manner of a 
tenor viol. An iron rod ran throuo-h the instrument, and 
served as a rest to support it. One head was stretched over 
a small barrel, so that it had the shape of a miniature drum. 
One assistant had a shabby tambourine, which he beat and rat- 
tled rather tenderly, as though afraid of cracking the parch- 
ment. The other had an earthen pot, with a skin stretched 
across, — a very common drum, and a general favorite with 
boat-crews and villagers. Even in Cairo, these pot-drums may 
be heard and seen all over the city ; and heard, too, where 
they cannot be seen, — in the upper apartments of houses, 



152 A PILGRIMAGE TO EGYPT. 

where family entertainments are held, and jollifications con- 
ducted, on a liberal Arabic scale. 

The dancing-girls retired into the mud house, stooping to 
enter a door to an inner apartment, protected by a suspended 
mat. There was no. cfther opening for the ingress of light. 
Pretty soon they returned, gayly dressed in a loose light dress, 
— mere gauze in texture, — of a red color, secured round the 
waist by a sash of silk, strung with triangular pieces of white 
metallic plates, the thickness of an English shilling, and an 
inch and a half in diameter, that jingled and tinkled when they 
moved. In each hand they held miniature metallic cymbals. 
Their performance consisted altogether in writhing the body 
between two fixed points, — the head being one and the feet 
the other. Being barefooted, — no part of the exhibition requir- 
ing the feet to be moved, — their acts were truly disgusting. 
Why it is called dancing is strange; since their toes are 
cramped into the mat, while the middle of the body is swayed 
out of the perpendicular, like a slack rope between two points 
of attachment. The sudden jerks, tinkle of the belt append- 
ages, and the castanets, made something of a noise ; but there 
was neither music, harmony nor decency, in any of it. All 
this transpired in a donkey-yard, which was filled with admir- 
ing spectators of the village, whose eyes glistened as they 
watched the bewitching attitudes of the operatic corps, as much 
as to say, What do you think of that ? It is perfectly unac- 
countable how those girls can twist the hips as they do, or 
elevate one and depress the other, without lifting either foot, 
or, apparently, shortening their stature, in effecting a feat so 
extremely difficult. They could make all the muscles of the 
back and loins quiver, independently of other parts, pre- 
cisely as horses give a vibratory action to a peculiar muscle 
they have about the neck and fore-shoulder, for shaking off 



DANCING WOMEN. 153 

flies. They would start by each other, change places, writhe 
and twist a while, and return to the first position. All these 
antics excited the liveliest emotions among the lookers-on, of 
native blood. The admirers increased as the play continued, 
till a little donkey, quietly grinding millet-stalks at my back, 
was pushed against me, with a force that obliged me to 
seek another sitting-place. It was quite as agreeable to be at 
the ass' heels as in contact with the rabble, whose leisure mo- 
ments are not unfrequently devoted to hunting vermin. There 
was an end to the show, as to all entertainments. Civilized 
showmen take the fee in advance ; but the Egyptians ask it 
at the close. Backshiesh began to ring in our ears; so we 
paid our assessment, and left. These females were far better- 
looking than the native women. They were all young; and 
it does not occur to me that I have ever seen one who could 
have been more than one or two and twenty. Their features 
were good, teeth white, skin yellowish, hair black, long and 
oily, and their facial expression that of the Malay. They travel 
from one settlement to another, often constructing their own 
dwellings ; and, for their performances, take grain, fresh vege- 
tables, and all the common garden productions. 

Nov. 30tk. Saturday. — When the reis sent aft for money 
to pay the guard, — who had passed the night in smoking, as 
though the fumes of tobacco would keep off robbers, — nothing 
was given ; and he was informed that he might go or remain, as 
suited his pleasure. He had stopped on his own account, and 
not ours ; — hence he might pursue any course he liked, till the 
day of reckoning. Soon after, the boat moved. Walking, at 
an early hour, several miles on the western side, in advance, 
— passing by a succession of millet-fields, in different stages of 
growth, — I saw several doum, palms, laden with fruit. The 
leaves are long, spear-shaped, with serrated teeth and prickers 



154 A PILGRIMAGE TO EGYPT. 

on the edges, which would effectually prevent any one from 
climbing into their tops. The nuts are cocoa-nuts in miniature. 
The trees were of the size of apple-trees. Some describe them 
as beautiful, in their frizzled aspect of defiance ; but, to me, they 
were ugly, motionless things, without a single quality to compare 
with the rich, soft foliage of trees in the temperate zones. For 
the first time, I saw long narrow strips of short velvety grass, 
resembling lawns in Scotland, fed down by sheep ; strongly 
bringing to recollection the short grass door-yards in front of a 
comfortable old New England farm-house, protected from the 
road by a slat fence. Saw a drove of sleek, well-fed cattle, 
with high humps over the fore-shoulder. They had been 
driven — we understood from one of the drovers — a thousand 
miles, following the Nile, somewhere above Dongola. At 
Geezeh, where droves are concentrated for sale, I had previously 
seen the same breed; but they were lean, weak, and poor in flesh, 
from the long journey. Fields of halfar-grass, presumed to be 
a hundred acres in extent, on excellent land, that would yield 
any kind of grain, were noticed ; which shows the population is 
sparse, and that the soil is neglected, because there are no 
laborers. On the opposite side of the river, desolation is com- 
mencing a triumphant reign. The sand is gradually creeping 
down, driving man, and even wild animals, from its sterile 
embrace. Wild geese were increasingly plenty ; and crows, 
too, of a fawn-color. Lizards darted hither and thither; but 
the serpents kept out of sight : we only saw the tail of one, as 
it was crawling into a hole. Small scaled fish, four inches 
long, — fine eating, — are common. They are caught at the 
mouth of canals, by holding baskets, as the water falls to a 
lower level. A large, soft fish, the size of a cod of ten pounds' 
weight, and resembling the catfish of the Mississippi, is fre- 
quently caught. Fish seem to swarm ; but the apparatus for 



RXJINS OE DENDERA. 155 

taking them is too poor for much success. We saw a large 
field under water, retained from the overflow at high Nile, 
that was being drained, by removing the mud barrier at one 
^extremity. A strainer caught all the fish which followed, a 
few of which were purchased for dinner. At the great Lake 
of Harlsem, which engineers were draining by steam-pumps, 
when I was in Holland, they had a strainer place^ where all 
the water sucked up into the pumps was discharged into a 
canal, and thus immense quantities of fish were taken that 
might otherwise have escaped. 

Bendera, Bee. 1. — This is another epoch in life ; for I have 
been gratified with a satisfactory examination of the great and 
celebrated ruins of the sacred edifices of Dendera, opposite the 
miserable town of Keneh. 

After going over and through the interior of three excavated 
temples, our curiosity was whetted for further developments, — 
since it is strongly probable that there is more concealed than 
has yet been brought to light. These massive, splendid build- 
ings, — surpassing in architecture anything Europe ever had, — 
are not always appreciated by those who are so fortunate as to 
view them. The pillars on which the flat roof rests are mas- 
sive and magnificent beyond all I have yet seen. What men, 
in conception, and in execution, too, those old temple-builders 
must have been ! These great, these surprising achievements, 
of human skill and industry, — buried for one or two thousand 
years, for aught that is known to the contrary, — have been 
partially exposed, by clearing away the sand that encircled 
them. The principal edifice is cleared of rubbish within, which 
allows of a pretty free exploration among the massive, lofty, 
hieroglyphically-covered columns. Even the walls are covered 
in the same manner, with raised figures, from the floor to the 
ceiling overhead ; and the by passage-ways, and those secret 



156 A PILGRIMAGE TO EGYPT. 

retreats that were only accessible to the sly old priests who 
lived within those sacred enclosures. It is difficult to realize 
how the means could have been procured for meeting the 
enormous expense of half a dozen of the pillars, aside from 
all the rest of the temple. Even the reputed wealth of Crcesus 
would have been exhausted in simply sculpturing the walls, 
independency of quarrying and transporting the astonishing 
blocks of which the fabric was composed. No description 
could do justice to those inimitable specimens of artistical 
skill. I have already seen enough of architecture in Egypt 
to convince me that four thousand years to come will not 
produce their equal. One of the striking facts to be espec- 
ially remembered, in explaining the manner of temple-building 
in this country, is this : A stone in a wall has a hammered 
face inside and out, and is, invariably, just thick enough to 
make the face of the apartment, where it is covered with hiero- 
glyphical figures, generally in relief. Some of the temples are 
sculptured on both sides ; therefore there is no plastering, no 
wood, no small stones ; but enormous ones, — far, very far, supe- 
rior in size to any used in modern structures. This was the 
celebrated building in which the French savans, who accompa- 
nied Napoleon to Egypt, discovered the unique planisphere, — 
one of the main objects of attraction at the public library in the 
rue Richelieu, at Paris. I had seen it there ; but should have 
been quite overcome with surprise to have been told that I 
should view the ceiling from whence the glorious trophy was 
wrenched. There are millions of figures, representing gods 
and men ; some with dog's heads, and others having hawk's 
bills. It would be absurd to waste a moment in particularizing 
the high finish and exquisite groupings of the multitudes of 
figures and characters, which, could they be translated, would 
greatly humble our pride, and lead to the conviction that we 



EUINS OF DENDEKA. 



157 



are far from being as wise as imagined. At some past period, 
an attempt has been made to obliterate the largest of the sculp- 
tures, by picking them over with stone hammers or chisels. 
V/hoever undertook the task doubtless became weary of the 
work, and left it incomplete. His memory would be anathe- 
matized forever, were he known, for hia vandalism. Tradition 
imputes all these, and similar defacements, to the Christians. 
When they first began to collect about these ruins, they felt a 
holy zeal inspiring them to obliterate all the memorials of the 
devil, which these were assumed to be. Thanks to the build- 
ers, their faithfulness in whatever they undertook secured 
enough — broken, buried, bruised and crushed, as it is — to 
establish their fame imperishably. They intended to transmit 
their discoveries to all future time ; but the language, and the 
subjects recorded, are both lost in the revolution of empires. 




TEilPLS OF DE?;DEKA. 



Rain seldom falls here, say the people of Upper Egypt. 
When the great temple was built, it appears that rain fell copi- 
14 



158 A PILGRIMAGE TO EGYPT. 

ously sometimes, from the circumstance that the roof, though 
technically fiat, was a series of inclined planes, draining the 
water in eave-troughs ; and from thence it was conducted into 
tubes, that terminated in the mouths of four couchant lions, 
projecting from the walls as far as necessary to expose the fore- 
paws and shoulders, — a grand design. The holy of holies — 
a distinct and elaborately-finished enclosure, in the centre of a 
large square apartment, beyond all others, from which we saw 
the secret outlets up between the walls — was of itself a won- 
der. Hundreds of generations may have been born, and have 
died, at Dendera, who never passed the sacred threshold of the 
mysterious habitation of Horus. It was designed to be arti- 
ficially lighted, as there are no windows, and but a single door. 
Neither are there any windows in the walls that surround it. 
The plan is imitated in modern prisons, where cells are placed 
in the middle of a hall, about which the officers can freely walk. 

I am fully aware of the impression that Egyptian sculpture 
was declining when these beautiful creations rose into existence; 
yet they are so far from being inferior, as to challenge the 
whole world to match them, with all the appliances of modern 
art. 

No locality could have been more charming than the one 
occupied by these temples, were the landscape as rich and 
verdant as when their foundations were laid ; but the insidious 
sands, like the stealthy approaches of a boa constrictor, sud- 
denly sprang upon their beautiful victims ; and now, all desolate 
and dreary, their fractured and battered cornices just peep out, 
to indicate where the traveller is to look for the buried wonders 
of a former race of men, whose names, whose system of govern- 
ment, whose acts, and whose history, are alike conjectural, and 
will, we have reason to fear, defy the scratinv of this or coming 
ages to expound. 



RUINS OF DENDERA. 159 

Whenever these vast constructions, so grand, yet imperfectly 
understood in their details, are unburied, — as they doubtless 
will be, at a future period, — by some literary adventurer, who 
has a fortune to devote to the purpose, he will achieve an 
enviable immortality by their strange developments; and it 
is not a vagary of a distempered imagination to anticipate that, 
at Dendera and its associate ruins, the very implements of 
the laborers, the plans of the architect, the records of a secretive 
priesthood, golden emblems of their offices, and facts illustrative 
of the early history of the human race, may be the rich reward 
of explorations. A village was actually erected on the roofs of 
these massive temples : the remains of brick houses, two stories 
high ; fractured bricks ; stone, rough and quarried ; broken pot- 
tery, with all the accumulations and the lumber of centuries, 
was heaped upon those strongly-framed tops, which the inhab- 
itants may have mistaken for solid rock. There they lived 
and died ; there their graves may be recognized ; and there the 
shattered remnants of their dwellings may be seen. And yet 
they never seem to have had an idea of the vastness, beauty, 
wonder and marvels, over which they passed their days. The 
sand, and debris of men and animals, with the warfare of the 
elements, concealed all these mighty things to the depth of 
eighty feet below the original level of the ground. Why they 
abandoned the place, is quite as extraordinary as that they ever 
occupied it. 

It is a full mile from the ruins to the river, — - a large allu- 
vian plain intervening, which has probably been deposited by 
the river, since Dendera was abandoned by its primitive wor- 
shippers. There is a gateway of a necropolis, — massive and 
superb; a mere remnant, however, without a stone of the 
wall that it was once connected with. Through it splendid 
processions had moved ; royalty and prelatical dignity, with 



160 A PILGRIMAGE TO EGYPT. 

all that was imposing in the ceremonial worship of Egyptian 
divinities, had often been seen there, while awe-stricken thou- 
sands were looking on from surrounding heights, to scan the 
majesty of the show. Human bones may be carried off by 
ship-loads from Dendera, whenever they are in demand. The 
ancient population must have been dense, from the multitude 
of graves. There is no parallel in Europe to the accumula- 
tion of dead bodies in the ancient burying-fields of Egypt. 

After having completed our observations, and made more 
notes than will ever be referred to, we returned to the boat. 
There we were greeted by a raft of earthen pots, an acre square, 
manned as I have seen rafts on the St. Lawrence, and on the 
Rhine, in Switzerland. Our crew had a merry-making to-day. 
To the monotonous music of the zummarah, and the accompan- 
iment of the earthen-pot drum, one of their vulgar dances was 
performed, with all its offensiveness. Only one took the deck 
floor at a time ; but the remainder participated cordially in the 
festivity, by clapping their hands in unison, and joining in a 
line of chorus. Ethiopian serenaders are altogether beyond 
them, in every respect, while the American Indian excels both 
in dignity and propriety of conduct. The noise and antics 
were execrable, and immoral in their tendency, giving evidence 
of a corruption festering still deeper in their natures. 

It may be well to mention here, out of place as it may be, 
that, while groping under the great Dendera temple with a 
candle, hundreds of little masses were pendant from the under 
side of the roof, resembling the rudiments of a wasp's nest ; 
but, on minute inspection, they turned out to be stalactites of 
saltpetre. 

With the approach of night, the wind, our solace and power 
for pursuing the way, quite failed ; so we hauled up to the 
bank again, brought out the beetle, and fastened to a spot 



AN AEAB GATHERING. 161 

where earthen jars are manufactured, and made into rafts, for 
down river trade. Some of them were of incredible dimen- 
sions. At a distance, we heard the unmusical thumping of a 
tom-tom. With several of the crew, who were fond of an 
adventure, — all of whom armed themselves with stalks of the 
date-tree leaf, one bearing- a lantern, — we followed the sound, 
which led us to an Arab village, more than a mile distant. 
Just as we reached the lane that led up to where numerous 
heads could be faintly perceived in outline, we were all tripped 
up by cords, stretched near the ground, to which donkej^s were 
hampered. On getting out of the tethers, we were assailed by 
a squadron of furious dogs. When they were disposed of, we 
came into the midst of a miscellaneous collection of squatting 
Arabs, at the foot of a little box of a mosque. They were list- 
ening to a monotonous recitative of a performer, who added to 
the zest of the entertainment by a hearty thump upon a tam-^ 
bourine, at the termination of each sentence. The recitation 
was of a sober, mournful character, from appearances, as the 
spectators were not excited by it, but rather depressed, if the 
face was an indication of the workings within. A second man 
next came before the audience, squatted into a theatrical posi- 
tion, and exhibited his skill. Some of the audience joined in a 
chorus, occasionally. We were seated on the edge of a water- 
trough. The females, after watching our movements with 
severe scrutiny, through their veils, scampered simultaneously 
off into the darkness beyond. Sheik Abdallah, lord of th& 
settlement, — a noble-bearded specimen of Arabian develop 
ment, — ordered coffee, and we frequently received a pipe from, 
himself and bis honored associates. A whiff was taken, the 
mouth-piece wiped, and returned, with mutual salaams, of the 
most approved inclinations of the body. When we smoked, 
the ladies gathered nearer, as though that act were an indica- 
14^ 



162 A PILGRIMAGE TO EGYPT. 

tion of our harmlessness. For the sake of having a light, to 
see their guests, a messenger was sent into the mosque, to bring 
out a glass lamp. They all stared at us to their hearts' con- 
tent. A song was extemporaneously composed, on our auspi- 
cious visit, for which the tambourine was passed, to receive the 
price. Amid the howl of dogs, the braying of an ass, the low 
obeisance of the consequential, the shy glances of the females, 
and the curiosity of the children, — who may never before have 
seen howadjis, — we departed. The sheik sent three of his 
retainers, as a guard of honor ; a genteel way of getting back- 
shiesh. On the way back, the frogs were peeping, precisely 
after the New England manner about the middle of May. 

Dec. 2d. Monday. — Current too strong for the feeble wind, 
and no progress made to-day, worth remembering. We are 
reputed to be within eighteen miles of Thebes, and, therefore, 
feel a prompting curiosity to reach it speedily. The boat was 
urged along by poles, — a slow process for persons in haste. 
While breakfasting, an old, smoking, leather-faced Arab was 
discovered, forward the camboose, who was announced by 
Hassan as captain of the guard at Luxor. Coffee was ordered 
the distinguished visiter; but he had hardly swallowed it, 
before a second captain of the guard popped up from behind 
the rubbish. Both came on board in the night. They com- 
menced showing certificates of travellers, testifying to their 
good properties as guides in the Theban temples. This suffi- 
ciently explained their business, and opened our eyes to their 
character. They had gone down stream, to intercept ascend- 
ing boats, as pilots go far out in the bay for ships. Orders 
were given to cut the great men off from a dinner, which forth- 
with led to their exit into a village. Up and down river, wan- 
derers are accustomed to present themselves, in the capacity 
of great somebodies to the pasha, for which coflee and back- 



ARAB LOVE-SONGS. 163 

shiesh, without stint or limitation, are solicited. They are all 
impostors, and two-thirds of them vagabonds. Nile dragomen 
are deeper in the plot of encumbering travellers with assist- 
ants than is generally suspected. They are often in collusion 
with these captains of moonshine, with whom they probably 
divide whatever they may raise through false pretences. There 
are neither guards nor guides at Thebes, except those volunta- 
rily assuming the office, for their individual profit. 

Passed a to\\Ta of pigeon-houses, — Negade, — w^here a 
Roman Catholic cross is elevated above them all, shomng that 
a few Catholics have a foothold. Mounds of water-jars were 
to be seen ; enough, when broken, — as they will be, — for a 
mound foundation of a rival settlement. It was extremely 
warm, to-day ; my dress is summer clothing, without stockings. 
A poor Arab fellah consulted me about a contused eye, injured 
seven months ago. He brougrht two ears of roasted corn as a 
fee ! He appeared quite discouraged, when informed the organ 
could not be restored. Another had a fixed pain in the small 
of the back, the cause of which was apparent, but beyond my 
control. The crew, with some of their visiters from Thebes, 
and the dragoman, have had a world of fun. Alick, the ora- 
tor, the cleverest of the sailors, and the most trustworthy, gave 
out a line, which all sang together, whether they had musical 
voices or not. The air was always the same, sung, or played 
on an instrument. Arabs are grown-up children, amused with 
trifles wholly beneath the notice of a tenth-rate intellect. 
Alick's song, when translated, ran thus : — 

Had I a cocoa-nut hooker. 
Filled with gold, 
And a golden knife, 
I would give it all to her 
Who is my sweetheart. 



164 A PILGRIMAGE TO EGYPT. 

When thrown into another form, it becomes a little more har- 
monious : — 

Had I a golden hooker, 

With precious jewels set, 
All should go to her 

Who comes within my net. 
Or had I other riches, — 

Had I a golden knife, 
An amber pipe, beneath the shade, — 

No joy without a wife. 

These are rare examples of love-songs, among a people who 
purchase their helpmeets as they do other commodities. Even 
then, their faces are carefully concealed till the contract is 
sealed. However faithful they may resolve to be, a divorce 
may follow, the day after the wedding, without their being 
compelled to assign a reason. The Koran is indulgent to its 
friends. 

Dec. Sd. Tuesday. — Thebes seen faintly in the distance, on 
the Libyan side of the river, under the shadow of high lime- 
stone ledges, rough and jagged. The fellahs, females and all, 
are precisely, in feature and costume, as they are in Cairo. 
Customs are unchanging; empires rise and fall, but turbans 
never. The mud presents different densities, and assumes the 
forms of the limestone strata, in cracking into blocks very sim- 
ilar in appearance and dimensions. Language, dress, customs, 
and personal appearance, are here precisely what I found them 
at Alexandria. The fields change oftener than society. Women 
are all destined to carry water upon their heads till they yield 
up the ghost. I have again examined the strata of mud on the 
west bank, deposited at different epochs, modified by pressure, 
under the inundation, and by the infiltration of foreign materi- 
als held in solution. The stratification of the limestone in the 



EFFECT OF TRATELLERS UPON EGYPTIAN SOCIETY. 165 

mountain ranges or river barrier was brought about, perhaps, 
in the same way. They were unquestionably formed by a 
slowly-retiring sea, or by oceanic currents, charged with the 
materials of which they are composed, and subsequently ele- 
vated by a mighty subterranean force. Passed an Arab who 
was digging post-holes, to set up a shadoof. The digging 
was entirely accomplished with his bare hands, without a frag- 
ment of a tool. He was thus reduced to the level of a burrow- 
ing animal. I have not seen a shovel above Cairo ; nor is it 
probable, there is one belonging to a farmer in the valley, from 
that city to the first cataract. 

By some necromancy, one of the self-created guards, ejected 
sans cere?nonie, yesterday, reappeared. A lizard was discov- 
ered, running up the bank ; and the great guard-man beckoned 
for Mr. Warren's gun, with which he killed it. Its tongue was 
forked, and very long, — indicating that it lived on insects. 
The Theban ruins, fortunately, are less defiled than some 
others by stables, mud-hovels, turkey-roosts and pigeon-houses. 
The government — feeble and wretched as it is — ought to 
be inspired with a desire to preserve those curiosities in art, 
which still give to Egypt a glory and historical renown that 
outweigh the archseologicai attractions of all other countries. 
They are the life-blood of the pasha's viceroyalty ; for, who 
would subject themselves to discomforts, tediousness of progress, 
impositions, and expense, to explore the country, were the 
ruins coeval with the Pharaohs no longer there ? Travellers 
— few as they are — exert a civilizing influence over the 
benighted regions of Mohammedan darkness ; and science, the 
mechanical arts and modern suggestions, are imperceptibly 
introduced, to improve, elevate and promote, national prosper- 
ity. It is not at all probable that his highness cares a fig for 
civilization ; nor are there reasons for suspecting that he sees 



166 A PILGRIMAGE TO EGYPT. 

an inch beyond the present political degradation of his people. 
There is no future to him ; no prospective encouragements of 
improvement. The maxims of the East are at variance with 
the laws of Christianity, and, therefore, are eminently selfish; 
and the policy of every ruler is to get all he can, regardless of 
the wants, necessities, miseries, or claims, of his subjects. 

Hauled up at Luxor. I was in a state of ecstatic bewilder- 
ment, at the grandeur and unsuspected majesty of the remains. 
The obelisk in front of the more than half-buried temple is 
similar to Cleopatra's Needle, and is as perfect as on the day 
of its erection. Its sides are polished to the smoothness of 
glass ; the angles are sharp, and the hieroglyphics bold and 
distinct. Those stolen monoliths set up in Paris and Constan- 
tinople — which I have examined — are rough, in comparison. 
Perhaps twenty or thirty feet of the base — like the feet and 
bodies of the sitting statues, behind, concealed by millions of 
cart-loads of filth — may be in excellent preservation. Karnak, 
a mile and a half distant, on the same side of the river, looms 
upf with the imposing features of a great fortress. Thebes is 
directly opposite Luxor, on the Libyan side. When the sun 
went down, this evening, behind the serrated mountains to the 
west of Thebes, the splendor of its pure rays was glorious. 
We stopped just long enough to run through the temple, and 
among the columns of Luxor; for the wind sprang up sud- 
denly, and we sped on our way still further up the river. 
We had resolved to improve every blast, to hasten the accom- 
plishment of the voyage to the first cataract ; knowing it to be 
an easy matter to float back with the current. And it was 
understood, too, that whatever was missed should be investi- 
gated on our return, when there would be no anxiety in regard 
to movements preying upon us. 
, Guides flocked down to the boat in shoals, annoying us 




Ill III II 



CARGO OP SL AYE-GIRLS. 167 

excessively with their importunities, and requests to have their 
quires of recommendations read. They were in the way, go 
where we would; nor could they be shaken off. Gentlemen 
who carry guides with them all the way from Malta or Alexan- 
dria are to be commiserated. It is emphatically carrying coals 
to Newcastle. Passed a gayly-rigged and admirably-manned 
boat, belonging to a son of that old fighting monster, Ibrahim 
Pasha. Of these he left three, by different mothers, of three 
different colors, — namely, black, white, and brown ! We passed [ 
a slave-boat, also, w^ith a stolen cargo of girls, from some part of 
the interior of Africa, quite beyond the explorations of any 
traveller. They were the blackest of black negroes, and had 
beautifully white, even teeth, with their hair — frizzled into 
kinks — braided, as near as they could do it, into little w^hip- 
cord masses, sticking out at all known mathematical angles. 
A mere remnant of a coarse Arab blanket, held together by 
their hands, covered them. They had bracelets on their wrists, 
trinkets suspended from their foreheads, and perhaps some may 
have had ear-rings. Wretched as they were, the love of jew- 
elry, or those affixes which even civilized females fancy 
enhances their charms, was predominant with those poor, 
ignorant, abused creatures, who were e?i route to a market, to 
be sold as beasts are in a pen, from v/hence they enter a state 
of bondage from which death alone can emancipate them. A 
few boys may have been with them ; but they are not so profit- 
able as females, and therefore the latter are always preferred, 
because, in every Mussulman town, they quickly have a pur- 
chaser. They laughed in concert at our — to them — odd 
costume, — especially our hats, which w^ere quite as absurd to 
them as theirs to us. Their smoking masters were squatting 
about the deck, enjoying the spectacle, in common with their 
cargo. 



168 



A PILGRIMAGE TO EGYPT. 



In all countries I have visited, — among savages, the demi- 
civilized, and the most refined, — woman adorns herself, if 
possible. It is inbred ; and all the efforts made to bring their 
vanity, in this respect, into subjection to reason, by preach 
ing the beautiful sentiment of the poet who could not afford to 
buy diamonds for his wife, "When unadorned, adorned the 
most," has, in no instance, overcome the inherent love of orna- 
ment. 

While stepping over and between the nuisances collected 
round the pillars in Luxor, in a narrow passage, I came sud- 
denly upon a female, seated on a pile of filth, and leaning her 
back against a superb column, who was singularly bedecked 
and ornamented. The most prominent of all her jewels was 




a brass hoop, three-fourths of an inch in diameter, strung with 
a variety of colored glass beads, and which was suspended from 
the right wing of her nose. Inconvenient as it must have been, 



NILE SAILORS. 169 

had she not been thoroughly convinced that it heightened her 
personal charms, it would never have been tolerated a single 
moment. There I left her, satisfied that the dignity of her 
position, and the tasteful arrangement of her treasures, must 
have raised her to an enviable distinction in the estimation of 
the vulgarians of her own sex, who could not indulge them- 
selves with a hoop in their noses. 

One boat, only, laid at Thebes, on our arrival, controlled by 
a solitary, a Col. Measures, of the British army, who arrived 
the day before, and was to leave immediately. At his request, 
we took some salt on board, for a friend at Assuan, the ancient 
Syene. 

Bee. Ath. Wednesday. — We had nothing to do but gaze at 
whatever we passed. Much is to be learned by scrutinizing 
the faces of the men and women we meet, — the descendants 
of those mighty ones who preceded us on the old beaten track 
of nations. Writing becomes extremely irksome, even to keep 
up my diary. 

Cheered by* the growing prospect of a good run through the 
last night, the wind began to roar across the broad plain, which 
so frightened the reis that he made fast with the pin and beetle, 
in spite of our remonstrances. Nile sailors, in our experience, 
are notorious cowards. They might accomplish a voyage in 
much less time, had they common resolution. It is their way 
to be as long as they can in doing everything ; for time is of 
no account with them. Passed another sugar-making estab- 
lishment, in process of erection, about twenty-five miles from 
Thebes, owned by the notable who went by us in the gay hoat. 
Being a relative of the pasha, he was presented with the plan- 
tation and the neighboring village, from whence he v/ill force 
laborers to do his bidding. A fine harem is being finished, 
near by. It is the first care of an Egyptian gentleman to have 
15 



170 A PILGRIMAGE TO EGYPT. 

a well-stocked household. His influence and standing is inti- 
mately connected with a flourishing domestic establishment, 
if we are to believe what is stated by persons familiar with the 
organization of society, in connection with what is seen. He 
is a single man, but acting in accordance with an often-quoted 
English proverb, — First get a cage, and then buy the bird. 
Tradition points to the back part, or, rather, western side of 
this recently given-away village, as the birthplace of Moses. 
On going ashore, a circle of Arabs were squatting round a straw 
fire ; six out of seven of them had lost the fore-finger of the 
right hand, at the second joint. The feeling which induced 
this voluntary mutilation seems to have pervaded the entire 
population during the reign of Mohammed Ali ; and yet they 
all lament his death; for he was just, they say; and they 
now find an apology for the severity of his measures in the 
exigencies of the times in which he lived. After he com- 
menced taking the maimed into the public service, and it was 
settled that cutting off a finger or obliterating an eye would be 
no excuse, the practice was abandoned. 

While passing the new sugar-house, which has a flat roof, 
on and about which masons were at work, we observed little 
Arab girls carrying mortar, in trays, upon their heads. A 
strapping black fellow, in a milk-white, flowing cotton frock, 
and a fiery-red tarbousch, and armed with a formidable long 
whip, stood on one corner, to maintain order, and quicken the 
movements of the children thus reduced to the condition of 
beasts of burden. In Cairo, I have seen women mixing mortar 
with their hands ; and long files of small girls carrying it to the 
tops of buildings, who were awed and quickened in their labors 
by overseers flourishing flexible whips. 

Dec. bth. Thursday. — Just as the sun was setting, — than 
which a more glorious sight cannot be witnessed in Europe or 



STARS IN AN Ea'xPTIAN EIKIIAMENT. ' 171 

America, in tlie splendor that marks its going down in the clear 
atmosphere of this section of Africa, — we came in view of 
Esne, a town particularly distinguished for being the place of 
exile for all the dancing-girls of Lower Egypt. An orthodox 
party of Moslems were so shocked with their performances, that 
it was not a difficult matter to effect their removal, by appeal- 
ing to the pasha. I cannot, however, understand w^hy a care 
for the public morals necessarily implies, among these people, 
such a movement. One of the old pasha's w'hitewashed 
houses, with Christian windows, nicknamed a palace, — as 
every building is that is not made of mud, — looked prettily 
at the lower end of the town. Nothing bears close inspec- 
tion, in Egypt, but its ancient ruins ; and they improve upon 
near acquaintance. An old Roman wharf, of hev\^n stone and 
brick masonry, immensely strong, — for that people slighted 
nothing that was designed for public utility, — shows that 
they invariably improved the natural advantages for business 
and war, in whatever place they established themselves. It 
has tottered and keeled over, like the empire of the Caesars ; 
but the abutments, and great masses of adherent brick and 
mortar, are eloquent of departed glory. 

Fifteen miles further up, is a site of an old town, conjectured 
to have been Chorubis, with another Roman wharf, of hewn 
stone, indicating, as in the first, the thoroughness of those hardy 
conquerors of the world. But time and the Nile — two irre- 
sistible forces, which human ingenuity cannot control — are 
wearing it into oblivion. Immense numbers of grotto doors 
were seen along our present course, leading into the mountain- 
side. They were, no doubt, ancient tombs. 

And here I cannot forbear alluding to the splendor of 
the stars in the firmament over our heads. The whole can- 
opy above was resplendent w'ith beauty. Each and every 



172 A PILGRIMAGE TO EGYPT. 

planet seemed nearer the earth than I have ever been accus- 
tomed to see them in other climates. There was neither mist, 
haze nor storm, to obscure their perpetual brightness. Why 
the astronomers do not go there, with their instruments, is 
surprising. There would be neither detention by foul weather, 
nor obscurations by flying clouds. It is impossible to say how 
much they might accomplish, with |heir telescopes, in a single 
season, in this pure atmosphere. If poets and the first astron- 
omers studied the elements of the noble science of astronomy 
in Eg3''pt and Syria, under a transparent sky, — a camel's 
back the first observatory, — what might not be achieved, in 
this intellectual epoch, with modern telescopes, at Thebes, 
Luxor, and Karnak ? 

In sailing past Edfou, we had a good view of the pylon of a 
majestic temple, — to be visited on our return. A misfortune 
of a serious character soon after overtook us ; for I overset a 
bowl of custard, an essential part of a dinner. Eggs are the 
only edibles, in this filthy country, which are clean. It was, 
therefore, a serious loss, since it is unreasonable to expect 
another, or a clean substitute ; and, to enlarge the catalogue of 
woes, Ali dropped the coffee-pot overboard. Besides these 
troubles, every saucer was broken ; so that our table assumed 
a shabby appearance. My grief was measurably assuaged in 
the amusement of modelling a bacchanalian head in Nile mud. 
The crew seemed marvel-struck that mud could put on the 
expression of humanity. They frequently came aft to laugh 
over it. My personal friends, familiar with the activity of my 
organs of imitation, will understand this. Although I make 
not the least pretension to skill as an artist, it is perfectly easy 
for me to model a face of any person, in a short time, which 
shall have the expression of the original. 

Dec. 6tk. Friday. — Had a satisfactory run all night. 



MINUTE PDDDING. 173 

Passed Ombus, at sunrise. Saw the old Ptolemaic temple, on 
the Arabian side ; and, at eight o'clock, were informed that we 
should arrive at the first cataract by evening. Came to a vil- 
lage, in which a man had just died. There was a general 
howling by the women, that might have been heard at a great 
distance. We were informed that the mourning, in this man- 
ner, sometimes continues several days. Coffins are out of the 
question, where wood is scarce, and boards rarely ever seen, 
unless brought from Europe. Most of the hills are quite low, 

— mere swells, compared with the lofty, rugged barrier-rocks 
lower down the river. The Nile was obviously smaller, but 
not more rapid, than at Cairo or Atfeh; nor was it thought 
to be deep. I am impressed with the idea that the Nile is 
fed by subterranean branches, that enter the common chan- 
nel ; and that those out-of-sight contributors flow beneath the 
limestone underlying the sands of both deserts, below the first 
cataract. 

In consideration of being near the conclusion of the voyage, 

— having proposed to end it at the island of Phil^, above the 
cataract, in the province of Nubia, — which was the Ethiopia 
of the ancients, — we ordered our boon friends a turkey, to 
be dressed for dinner. Being too large for the receiving appa- 
ratus, it was halved, and brought on, like a peeled orange, to 
resemble a whole one. Who would not dine on turkeys in 
Egypt, at seventeen cents' cost ? A crowning part of the enter- 
tainment — altogether an extra one, in point of taste and vari- 
ety — w^as a minute pudding. The cook knew nothing about 
the dish ; but, a little bag of flour being in the locker, it devolved 
on me to manufacture it. Such a pudding was no every-day 
affair. Mr. Holland and Mr. W^arren had the politeness to 
keep their countenances ; but there was no disguising the fact 
that swallowing a mouthful of it was an extraordinary feat, for 

15^ 



174 A PILGRIMAGE TO EGYPT. 

it went down with extreme reluctance, and against the will of 
the stomach. However, it was christened an economical pud- 
ding ; because what was not eaten was used to paste up the 
back of a torn book. Hassan wished to know if it was an 
American pudding. 

Coming to a sparse settlement, close to the river, on a nar- 
row strip of alluvium, two of the sailors wished to land and 
visit their friends, promising to overtake us at Assuan. We 
gave each of them an empty bottle, a few figs and apricots, 
and some tobacco, as presents to those they were to visit. 
Poor fellows ! they had been absent a year, — and what could 
they carry home, at one dollar a month ? One was born here, 
and the other a few miles further on. One had a divorced 
sister, — as every one has who has a sister, — and the other a 
wife. Their meeting with them was cordially affectionate and 
touching. They were Nubians. They have a keen sense of 
the ridiculous, and are less selfish than the Arabs. Though 
jet black, they seem to mix blood with others, and intermarry 
with Arabs and Abyssinians. 

Dec. '^th. Saturday, — Reached Assuan, pronounced As-wan 
by the natives. It is the ancient Syene, referred to in the book 
of Ezekiel. Syenite takes its name from this town, where 
granite was wrought, between three and four thousand years 
ago, with a facility that puts to blush the best attempts of this 
age, with its tools of steel. The masons of that day had cop- 
per chisels, the art of hardening which is now lost. Assuan is 
the true terminus of Nile navigation by boats of the first class. 
A smaller class of boats can be dragged through and up the cata- 
ract, which is done, a few times, every season. Opposite, is the 
island of Elephantis. It has a governor, and is a large town, 
with ruins extending every way, and almost everywhere, indic- 
ative of a former great city. Sweep the edifices of every kind 



ASSUAN. 175 

from the city of Boston, or tip them all over into the streets, 
cellars and wells, and, at the end of five hundred years, when 
all the best remnants of stone, pillars, mouldings, brick, &g., 
had been pilfered and removed, some conception might be 
formed of the wide desolation of the rough mounds on which 
stood ancient S3''ene. Elephantis is precisely in the same con- 
dition. We have no parallel for the appearance ; consequently, 
it is no easy matter for a person who has not surveyed the 
ruins with his own eyes to comprehend the desolation." 

Elephantis is a natural mound, enlarged by the inhabitants 
who have resided upon it. The river flows all around it ; and, 
at the time of the inundation, it must be extremely hazardous 
to cross to the main land. Things were once on a colossal 
scale on that little island. 1 scarcely know what we saw, 
because thers was so much that was exciting, on account of its 
connection with the past. There were sarcophagi, cut in the 
old red granite boulders ; there were high, strong gateways, 
great stones, and fragmentary sculptures ; the remnant of an 
old Roman bridge, that went across to Assuan, — the abutments 
of which are still firm, made of stones, bearing s}Tnbols, that, 
could they speak, would relate strange events, that occurred in 
their youth. We ranged over Assuan, went into the bazaars, 
and, for the first time in my life, I saw what I had never seen 
before ; but a regard for" decency forbids me to relate what is 
true in regard to public morals. We were stoned in the streets, 
by a rabble of Arab boys, who fired their missiles from the 
walls, and from behind street-gates. In haste to retreat, we 
came upon a company of respectable-looking Arabs, smoking 
round a gate, who interfered. They forbade the incipient 
haters of Christians from movinsf an inch further, and we 
quietly returned to our quarters on board. A group of children 
— many of them little g-irls, from five to ten years of age — 



176 A PILGRIMAGE TO EGYPT. 

followed us wherever we rambled over the island of Elephantis, 
with various articles to sell. Some had pieces of ancient blue 
glass, small bronze figures, metallic beetles, seals, ancient 
coins, &c., which they are continually finding, by rolling over 
stones, removing masses of brick, or excavating below walls. 
The girls had a narrow belt round the loins, with a pendulous 
fringe, — swaying and flying, in their antics, — without a par- 
ticle of any other covering. They had good features, black, 
restless eyes, and were perfectly elastic in their movements. 

Having sufficiently surveyed Assuan, we concluded to take 
donkeys for the upper side of the cataract, and not attempt to 
drag the boat over the rapids, between rocks, and through 
whirlpools. At the foot of the cataract, at the water's edge, 
which may be termed the port of Assuan, boats of various 
sizes — some from Cairo, and the intermediate • places, and a 
few from above, that came down through the cataract — were 
made fast to the bank. Merchants from Abyssinia and Don- 
gola, and people of strange features and strange languages, 
were packing and unpacking merchandise on the sandy shore. 
Coarse cottons, of gay colors, Arab shoes for females, the ugly 
yellow morocco boots, clumsy red morocco shoes, — peaked- 
toed, of course, — dates, tobacco, gaudy-colored calicoes, &c. 
&c., were heaped up in profusion. There was one gayly- 
painted tent, to protect a slave-dealer. An air of activity pre- 
vailed, and novelty reigned through the whole. At this aquatic 
mart, a tall, finely-developed Abyssinian, black as charcoal, 
finely-featured, with pearl-white, even teeth, noticing my 
gloves, as I was walking slowly where he and his assistants 
were re-packing goods, begged permission to look at my " hand- 
cases," as he called them, having never before seen any. They 
were a poor, ripped and torn pair of kids ; and it was a subject 
of profound regret that a better specimen was not at hand. 



AN ARAB BURYING-GROUND. 177 

They were inspected with careful attention. Not being able 
to introduce their own broad-spread hands^ it was a source of 
amusement to them to have me put them oflf and on. This 
man could write Arabic, but, as nearly as I could understand, 
he had never heard of America. He wanted to know where I 
came from, and how far it was to my country. After various 
devices to make him comprehend, the figures 6000 were made 
with a pencil, when he expressed his astonishment at the dis- 
tance, — evidently comprehending that 6000 meant a measure 
that conveyed the idea of a great distance. He once asked if 
I cam^ from Emgleese. We exchanged cards ; he took mine, 
and carried it up the Nile, while his is still among my effects. 
Donkeys being procured, for going round the cataract, we 
started, at an early hour, to make the jaunt. Our destination 
was the island of Philas, once regarded as the holiest place in 
Egypt. After ascending and passing over extensive ruins, 
such as are nowhere else seen, — cellars, underpinning, broken 
granite shafts, hewn stone, broken bricks and pottery, the 
never-failing indications of the localities once in the occupancy 
of the old inhabitants, — we came to an Arab burying-ground, 
which, it was supposed, embraced a hundred acres. The num- 
ber of graves was startling ; for it was certain that the dead 
exceeded the living by scores of thousands. The population 
about the cataract, at some remote period, must have been half 
a million, if not more, in order to have peopled the city whose 
circuit we surveyed. The island of Elephantis — where 
wealth, luxury and refinement, were indicated in the character 
of its last remnants of crumbling ruins — cannot be described. 
Old sheik-tombs, some white and fresh, and others dilapidated 
and tumbling to pieces, were dotted about, extending to the 
outskirts, and perched upon all the principal commanding emi- 
nences. Grave-stones — about two feet and a half long, by one 



178 A PILGRIMAGE TO EGYPT. 

in width, lying flat upon the surface — were strewn about in 
profusion. Their inscriptions were Kuphic, and the characters 
in relief. I should have attempted to bring one away, had it 
not been intimated that it would not be allowed. Saw a stack 
of them, that had been collected together, probably when the 
graves they originally covered could no longer be designated. 
A broad highway extends from the back side of ancient Syene 
to within a mile of E'Shallal, which is the port, situated above 
the rapids, in a kind of basin, out of reach of the action of the 
current. Boats coming down the Nile, with dates and other 
products, and" staves, are usually disembarked here, and 'carried 
on asses down to Assuan. We passed droves of miniature don- 
keys, laden, bound for the trade-boats below the falls. There 
was a deal of bustle ; gayly-painted tents of slave-dealers ; 
troops of women, boys, children and up-river people, all busily 
bartering, trading, and exchanging commodities. A woman 
ran by the side of my fast-ambling donkey, intent upon selling 
me a clumsy silver bracelet, which she took from her wrist, for 
which she asked the modest sum of three dollars. The work 
was curious ; and, as a specimen of the ingenuity of the silver- 
smiths of Ethiopia, it would have been gratifying to have 
brought it away. We no sooner came to the water, than there 
was a tussle among rival boatmen for a job. The strife would 
have been alarming to persons unaccustomed to the ferocious 
gabble of excited Arabs. All the way up the great road, — 
which may have been made three thousand years, — it was 
very certain that human industry had singularly triumphed 
over the obstacles placed in the wt^y by nature. Vast boulders 
had been removed, quarried, and pulverized, to give a clear 
passage. There was a brick wall ail the distance v/here there 
was a desert exposure, to keep the sand from drifting on the 
track. We saw enormously large boulders of red granite, that 



APPROACH TO PniL-S. 179 

had been partially hewn ; sarcophagi, half finished, and aban- 
doned, on account of an injury. The same figures, characters 
and symbolic expressions, found on the obelisks, and on all the 
old public works, are cut upon the stones. The chisel-marks 
are fresh as though made the day before. We were quite 
overwhelmed at the amazing indications of the industry of the 
stone-masons on this region of boulders. Were I to relate all 
we saw, and the deductions made from observations, there 
would be no reasonable limits to this diary. 

E'Shallal is seven miles from Assuan, which corresponds 
with the distance from the low^er to the upper end of the Falls 
of St. Anthony, between Fort Snelling and the falls ; and the 
same, too, that exists between Lewiston and the Falls of Niag- 
ara. It is a singular circumstance that these three cataracts, 
the most remarkable on the continents of Africa and America, 
have receded seven miles each from the points where geologists 
suppose they were originally established. We took one of the 
best job-boats, dirty, broad and uninviting as it was, raised the 
American flag on a stick at the stern, and away the bare-legged 
fellows pulled for Philse. They sang an extemporaneous song, 
in honor of America, to gratify the vanity of their customers ; 
but, not then knowing a word of the language, and not more 
of the sentiment, it was all lost upon us. They did not mean 
it should be lost to themselves, however, for they begged for 
backshiesh lustily, at the conclusion of the excursion. 

As we approached Philss, young, supple Arabs, entirely 
naked, lying on a log of date-tree wood, to buoy them up, 
swam out to us, playing a^-^nimbly as sharks round the boat, 
beseeching to be taken as guides. 1 threv/ bits of hard bread 
into the water, for the sake of witnessing their activity in pick- 
ing them up. E'Shallal is a miserable place, wittiout a house; 
but an air of business activity reigns at the lauding. Tke river 



180 A PILGRIMAGE TO EGYPT. 

is narrow, not swift, and by no means very deep. Bales of 
goods, gum copal, dates, moss, and a variety of products from 
Africa, including human beings, were on sale, or soon would 
be, when arrived at their places of destination. Every one 
was seated on the ground, smoking, except those compelled to 
stand, to negotiate. When we were seated in the passage-boat, 
and raised our eyes to the scenery that surrounded us, we were 
astonished at the wildness, beauty and novelty, of the prospect. 
"We noticed many a painted picture on the rocks, that may 
have been defying the elements more than four thousand years ; 
but they are, nevertheless, quite fresh and bright in coloring, 
under the ceilings of some of the royal colonnades of Philse. 
Philae appears always to have been a small island, surrounded 
by the Nile, on which the wealth of monarchs and the influ- 
ence of priests were lavished, with a profuse liberality unparal- 
leled in these days of rigid economy. Walls, obelisks, majestic 
temples, covered by hieroglyphics, and some of the rarest speci- 
mens of ancient architectural excellence in sculpture, present 
themselves for contemplation, to surprise, astonish, and admon- 
ish us. At the top of the propylon of the great temple, — sur- 
passingly magnificent in the day of its beauty and . glory, and 
still a wonder such as the world rarely sees, — I raised the 
American flag. For the first time, the stars and stripes of the 
great republic of America waved where they had never before ; 
and the ignorant Arab fellahs who saw them no doubt queried 
in their minds what could have been intended by the exhibition. 
On the inside of the massive east temple was the following 
inscription : — 

''Philse.— 24. 3. 45. 
Paris. — 30. 16. 22. Balzac. F. R. Au. 7." 

Below, 



PHILiE. 181 

*' Jolin Fuller, five months from Adclwar, in Abyssinia, after being in 
that country 14 years, in the service of the Earl of Mountnonis and H. 
Salt, Esq. March 31, 1819." 

The mighty ruin on which v/e stood — the design of architects 
and subtle priests, executed by artists of consummate skill — 
was a ruin long before any of the present nations in Europe 
had existence. The continent of America, with all its geologi- 
cal, political, commercial and social importance, — in our time 
so large and so rich in resources, — was not known for some 
thousands of years after Philse had passed its climacteric. 

Philae may possibly contain six acres of land, every inch of 
which is covered by stately edifices, in the highest style of 
ancient Egyptian excellence. It is quite irregular in shape ; 
and the water-walls, to defend it from the action of the river, 
conform to the irregular line. After completing the examina- 
tion, climbing up, going through narrow, dirty passage-ways, 
and down into holes where no one would go for anything short 
of gratifying an insatiable curiosity, we crossed over to the 
island of Bigger, directly opposite, — a rocky, rough spot, — 
where there are remains of something beautiful in architecture, 
but what, no one can divine. Such elaborate cuttings, such 
fragments of sculpture in the hardest stone, settle the question 
in respect to the perseverance of those who accomplished these 
lasting memorials of human industry and folly, should it ever be 
agitated. A troop of naked children, and skinny, bony women, 
with a few boys, beset us, with a spirit of determination, for 
backshiesh, which quickened our pace, and hastened the depart- 
ure. About Bigger, up and down the river, and on the shore 
of the Arabian desert side, granite boulders, of great magnitude, 
were piled up two or three hundred feet, it was estimated, as 
though giants had placed them in that position, — as children 
pile up pebbles, — for amusement. They indicated the intense 
16 



182 A PILGRIMAGE TO EGYPT. 

action of heat, being black on the eastern side, and completely 
vitrified, like glass. Such a phenomenon is rarely, if ever, seen 
in other parts of the world. In the river, on its banks, and at 
the angle where the two branches, that flow each side of Philee, 
reiinite, to form the island, these boulders are covered with 
ancient inscriptions, with symbolic characters, precisely like 
those seen in and about the temples and monuments ; but of a 
rude description, as though executed by inferior workmen, to 
idle away time. Between three and four thousand years have 
passed away since their execution ; yet all the chisel-marks are 
fresh, and apparently newly-cut. Similar markings are seen 
on the boulders in the desert, and on high ledges above Syene, 
and even on the great bed of granite that juts out into the Nile, 
just above the landing-place at Assuan. In short, the traces 
of the ancient Egyptians abound, wherever there are masses of 
rocks. On the faces of several imposing rocks were the same 
symbolical characters, and the pictures of men, with hawks' 
and dogs' heads, — appearing to have been quite recently 
engraven. 

On the return to Assuan, we deviated a little from the track 
of the grand broad way road, to view a granite obelisk, in the 
quarry, which, for some cause, after being hewn, was left, and 
never afterwards sought. It is known as the rejected obelisk. 
Probably a change on the throne, a movement of the priest- 
hood adverse to the undertaking, or the demands of a war, 
might have interrupted the process. It is well hammered, and 
supposed to be over ninety feet in length by eight square at the 
base. It is of the common coarse gray granite. It should be 
exposed, by digging away the sand, to ascertain if it is still 
attached to the quarry. I was struck with what had been 
accomplished, on every side, upon granite ; while agriculture 
— on which the importance of Egypt must have necessarily 



VISIT FROM AN ARAB GOVERNOR. 183 

depended — might have been quite neglected. For full half a 
mile, on either side of the wide road, on our return route to 
Assuan, the energy of the ancient stone-workers was exhibited. 
Immense blocks were scattered about promiscuously, having 
the fresh chisel-cuts for the insertion of the wooden wedges by 
which they were split, appearing as though but recently exe- 
cuted. Rocks on the island of Bigger, and on the eastern 
desert, opposite Phil«, are strongly marked and engraven, with 
the self-same class of hieroglyphics everywhere distinguish- 
able, but of ruder finish, on obelisks, temples and monuments, 
of all descriptions, throughout the land. 

We were safely back at Assuan, in good time for a full 
exploration of the island of Elephantis, where the massive 
gatewaj'', and the steps leading down to the old Nilometer, — 
made of red granite, wrought with as much care and facility as 
if it were of ivory, — put into the shade the best efforts of our 
day in hard stone. By degrees we reviewed Assuan, — went 
to the slave-mart, only a colored woman and her three children 
being on sale. A tax is here collected on all slaves brought 
into Egypt. They cannot be conveyed further down the river 
till the duty is paid, which amounts to a very considerable rev- 
enue for the treasury of Abbas Pasha. , 

About sunset, as we were leisurely seated on our divan, — 
a raised wooden bench, which also served as our bed. by night, 
-—the Governor of Assuan, with his suite, called on board. 
This was an unexpected event, and not a common occurrence. 
After a formal introduction, accompanied by low bows, with 
the right hand across the breast, his excellency and party 
seated themselves, in oriental manner, on the divan. The 
passage-way between the benches was narrow, at the terminus 
of which was a very small room, used for a harem by the offi- 
cer who had the boat for a trip before we contracted for it. It 



184 A PILGRIMAGE TO EGYPT. 

was in the extreme stern, small and inconvenient. The divan 
filled it nearly full. In that snug apartment were my effects 
and lodgings. His great highness — who was a little nervous 
man, with sandy hair, very un-Turk like, with a beard of the 
same color — peeped into each hiding-hole ; and when the salu- 
tations were concluded, pipes were raised, with difficulty, for so 
many guests, by borrowing of the pilot ; but, after a while, all 
hands began to smoke, in dignified silence. Next, Hassan 
raised some coffee, piping hot ; and then a general conversation 
ensued, which was translated for both parties by the dragoman. 
His excellency begged a little tobacco, of course ; made some 
inquiries in regard 'to our country ; and, when he understood 
distinctly where it was, he rolled his little gray eyes towards 
the zenith, and exclaimed. Bis millah — God is great! He wore 
a golden miniature anchor, suspended by a ribbon. We were 
informed that he had been an officer in the army. In his suite 
was a tall, black Abyssinian, of grave aspect, and two others, 
tolerably white, — Turks, I imagined, — who were sufficiently 
obsequious to his excellency to show they were dependants. It 
occurred to me to enter a complaint against the rabble of insult- 
ing boys who had given us such annoyance in the streets ; but, 
fearing he might order them flogged to death, — knowing the 
severity of the mildest punishments, in a despotism, — nothing 
was said' about it. After a proper time, and in good taste, the 
gentlemen took their leave. The occasion was improved for 
making some statistical inquiries in regard to population, prod- 
ucts, prospects and resources, of Upper Egypt. The popula- 
tion of Assuan, the governor told us, was five thousand seven 
hundred. It seemed to me that this was an exaggerated 
account ; for three thousand would require more ample accom- 
modations than exist in the town. He may have included sev- 
eral small villages, and the dependencies, — including the river 



MOHAMMEDAN ESTIMATION OP CHKIST. 185 

strangers. His district extended from Keneh to Philse, — a 
little short of two hundred miles. The governor made some 
inquiries about the government of our country, and observed 
that the flag flying on the boat was the first of the kind he had 
seen at Assuan the present season. The general principles of 
the government of the United States were explained; and 
when assured that the pashas of provinces — equivalent to gov- 
ernors — were elected by the people, and, if these did not 
answer their expectations, and w^ere bad rulers, the people 
removed |hem, and thus made them powerless, he was evidently 
surprised ; for he again exclaimed, God is great ! He was 
curious to know how the chief pasha of the whole country 
obtained his position; and, on being informed that he was a 
man standing upon the universal level, without hereditary 
privileges, and also elected by popular suflrage, on account of 
his presumed qualifications, his little excellency again puffed 
out the smoke in a voluminous cloud, and repeated the old 
exclamation, Bis Millah, as on all occasions when astonished. 
He inquired w^hat our books said about the ruins of Philas. 
Mr. Holland told him that our Koran (Bible) spoke of Eg}"pt, 
so that every child in our conntry knew something of its 
ancient histoiy. He at once remarked that our prophet, Jesus 
Christ, he believed to have been a good man ; and that he 
would fight side by side with Mohammed, for the people, in the 
end. 

I have noticed, in all conversations with the most intelligent 
and pious Mussulmans, they are free to admit that the Saviour 
— with whose name they appear familiar — was next in rank 
to Mohammed, in point of influence and dignity. But they 
never can divest themselves of the idea of fighting for the estab- 
lishment of both the Christian and Moslem faith. Heaven is 
16# 



186 A PILGRIMAGE TO EGtPT. 

to be obtained by an effort of arms, as well as by prayers, and 
a pilgrimage to Mecca. Fighting for religion is a part and 
parcel of the history of the origin and diffusion of Mohammed- 
anism ; and its maintenance must depend upon the same sys- 
tem that brought it into its present form ; because, when the 
intellect is developed, and Moslems begin to reason, they will 
also begin to acquire the elements of Christianity, which must 
be a death-blow to all confidence in the falsehoods of the Koran. 

Dec. 8th. Sunday. — Took our departure from Assuan at an 
early hour. An English traveller arrived, as we were unmoor- 
ing, who intended to look at Philse, and return next day. Our 
reis commenced some of his pranks of imposition in about two 
hours, — the crew refusing to row, because the wind blew. 
We threatened to carry him before the first pasha we should 
find, and even contemplated returning to enter a complaint to 
our friend, the governor. The design of the reis was to pro- 
long the voyage, in order to get more money than he could 
expect by despatching business in the accustomed manner. 

At four o'clock in the afternoon, we had drifted down to 
Kom Ombus, sixteen miles. Going on shore, we examined the 
gigantic columns, and parts of a great temple, dedicated to Ptol- 
emy and Queen Cleopatra, his sister, &c., — a ruin that bids 
defiance to all description. There is not a house, shanty, 
or even the habitation of a human being, to be seen, where 
was once a city; and this temple, which has withstood the 
assaults of ages, and of barbarous men and travellers, excites 
the liveliest sentiments of admiration. The attainments of the 
artisans and architects of the remote epoch when this magnifi- 
cent structure stood in all its classical proportions and beauty, 
— the object of admiration for a long series of ages, — were 
very extraordinary. This massive and very costly building — 
that must have required the constant and indefatigable labor 



ENORMOUS QUARRIED STONES. 187 

of thousands of the first artists of the time, for forty or fifty 
years — contained two holies of holies. It was raised wholly at 
the expense of the infantry that was quartered, during its erec- 
tion, at Ombus, which was one of the eminent military stations, 
and the centre of an extensive military district, during the joint 
reigns of the brother and sister — who were also husband and 
wife — referred to in an inscription, still legible. Under the ceil- 
ing of the mxagnificent portico of this imposing creation of men, 
some of the designs in coloring were never completed ; but the 
outlines, in red chalk, are still fresh and distinct, as though but 
just made. I was so full of astonishment at the sight of these 
ancient ruins, that have outlived everything else, that it quite 
destroyed all the veneration that had previously been acquired 
for the antiquities of Rome. Pompeii and Herculaneum, with 
all their wonders and buried treasures, which I had wandered 
over with feverish eagerness, melted into utter insignificance in 
comparison with Kom Ombus. 

We spent some time in reflection over two beautifully-sculp- 
tured stones, twenty feet long, eight in width, and nearly eight 
thick. How they had been transported from the quarry is 
a matter of speculation; for, even with our modern improve- 
ments in derricks, and boats for burden, it would be very 
difficult to handle these enormous blocks. But the next query 
was this : How were they raised up the steep bank of the river, 
and then elevated to their position in the structure ? In regard 
to the great blocks of which the roof was composed, the same 
perplexity arises. Many of them would weigh — so thought all 
of us — from twenty to fifty tons, if not more. This is, indeed, 
a marvellous story to relate ; but I might give a series of 
facts that came within the particular scope of my professional 
■ observation, in regard to the moral tone of society, that would 
be taken with such distrust that I dare not even state some of 



188 A PILGRIMAGE TO EGYPT. 

the smaller facts, by way of illustrating the social organization, 
or, rather, social toleration of enormities, feeling it might sub- 
ject me to the abuse of those who would be disposed to question 
the relation. I feel it wise to say nothing, rather than to 
involve myself in controversies with persons who know nothing 
of the subject, but who might be disposed to question the asser- 
tions of those who brave public opinion by stating what every 
traveller knows to be true who investigates the structure of 
society in unchristian countries. 

The propylon, the imposing gateway, — lofty enough for the 
entrance of the gods, — is fast going into the river. The 
current has undermined the advance sub-structure, and some 
massive and unequalled specimens of ancient sculpture, and 
primitive outline drawings in colors, have already been swal- 
lowed up by the insatiable Nile. Thirty years will wholly 
obliterate the last remains of this magnificent, wonderful, 
and unique edifice, unless the government speedily lends a 
helping hand, and defends it against the steady assaults of 
the river, and the ruthless devastations of foreign visiters. 
Monster temple as it was, it has diminished in volume; and, 
though it holds itself erect and dauntless between two never- 
resting foes, — the sands of Arabia upon its back, and the swift- 
flowing waters of the river in front, — it must, at no very 
remote period, give way, after a resistance of many a century 
of abandonment. 

A grand prospect of distant mountain scenery opened upon 
our excited vision from the top of the old temple, and the walls 
that enclosed the sacred edifice. In another direction, the aspect 
was desolate ; for there was a wide waste of millions upon 
millions of acres of arid, heated sand, that defied vegetation, 
and is now threatening the concealment, in its constrictor em- 
brace, of one of the finest specimens of architecture the world 



A MISSING BOATMAN. 189 

can boast. One of our sailors picked up the cast skin of a 
serpent six feet in length, indicating that loathsome reptiles 
are the permanent, undisturbed occupants of a spot once sacred 
to the gods of Egypt. A solemn worship, in the darkness of 
paganism, was instituted and practised where we were stand- 
ing: but the smoke of the altars has gone out; the holy vest- 
ments and priestly apparatus are nowhere to be found ; and the 
stillness of death marks the locality where the voices of thou- 
sands were heard, in the ecstasies of heathen enthusiasm, in 
praise of imaginary deities, whose attributes were the passions 
of men, with the characters of devils. 

Where the boat lay while the foregoing explorations were 
being made was a shadoof, about which were several perfectly 
naked children, pretty well grown. A sense of shame seemed 
never to have been developed either in them, or others in that 
condition. I saw half-grown girls at E' Shallal, as at Elephan- 
tine, who had a fringed belt round their loins, the pendant 
threads of which hung down an inch or two only below the hips, 
without any other clothing. Several adults — laboring men — 
were clothed as the Irish clergyman described the Carrickfergus 
beggars, in nothing but nakedness. 

The boatman spoken of as having had permission to go on 
shore at his native village, on the way to Assuan, failed to be 
there, as promised; and, on returning, when opposite the vil- 
lage, finding he was not forthcoming, as expected, Hassan, with 
the yawl, made a landing, for an inquiry for the non-appearing 
man. To his amazement, he learned that the poor fellow had 
been held a prisoner, ever since he left us, by the sheik, for 
not having paid the pasha's tax. Hassan represented the case 
of his engagement with us, and the consequences that would 
positively accrue to himself, — disastrous in the extreme, — if 
he thus detained the hired servant of a traveller, in violation 



190 A PILGRIMAGE TO EGYPT. 

of the well-known regulations of the pasha's government. 
The reasoning prevailed, simply because the sheik was afraid 
our representations might subject himself to the bastinado ; and 
the frightened prisoner was liberated without a flogging, con- 
trary to custom, upon promising to pay in millet, or something 
else equally good, on his next trip up the Nile. 

Dec. 9tk. Monday. — Since our declamatory confab with 
the reis yesterday, and the threat to take him before the next 
pasha on the route, the boat has floated down quite cheerily. 
For a few hours the wind was tempestuous, and not unlike 
being at sea, — for I became sick. Orders were given for stop- 
ping at the sandstone quarries of Silsilis. About three o'clock 
this morning, we hauled up directly under the ledge. A long 
walk, after daylight, and an hour given to the inspection, was 
satisfactory. It was at this quarry, and another, nearly oppo- 
site, on the other side of the river, that the ancient Egyptians 
procured all the great and massive blocks of sandstone for Kos 
Ombus, Luxor, and, indeed, for almost every structure in which 
that material was used. Hundreds of thousands of men must 
have wrought in these quarries, to have made so many deep 
and extraordinary excavations. There are the chapels in which 
they said their prayers ; the colonnades, where the overseers 
sat; the tombs which contained the remains of those most distin- 
guished among them. Of all the great and heavy quarryings 
in our own country, there is nothing that bears any comparison 
to the tremendous operations at Silsilis. Unfinished statues, 
niches in the walls, elaborate mouldings in stone, a beautiful 
door, the marks of the chisels, the stone on which they sharp- 
ened and tried the temper of their chisels, and colored figures, 
keep the traveller in a state of feverish excitement; because 
they surpass the utmost skill of modern times, even as displayed 
in tunnelling mountains for railroads. It must be more than 



IMMENSE SIZE OF EGYPTIAN RUINS. 191 

three thousand years since any labor has been performed there; 
yet the chisel-marks are, apparently, fresh, — there is no moss- 
grown air of antiquity about them. This freshness is such as 
to induce the feeling that the operatives have merely left for 
dinner. It should be recollected that all these extraordinary 
displays of energy and skill in quarrying stone, equal to the 
finest specimens of this age, were produced with copper tools, 
— iron and steel being quite unknown. The tempering of 
that metal is a lost art. 

We here found one of the apples of Sodom, which is a gigan- 
tic milkweed. The pod, containing the seed and silk, was 
shaped like a peach, being two inches in diameter. I suc- 
ceeded in bringing the seeds to New England. 

Immediately after dining, we came to Edfou, — the ancient 
Apollinopolis, — where there is another immense temple, sur- 
rounded by a heavy hewn-stone wall, beautiful and massive. 
No such workmanship is anywhere else displayed, where I have 
ranged abroad, on four continents. The towers of the gateway 
quite overwhelmed me with their majestic proportions, — nearly, 
if not quite, a hundred feet in height. Without a measuring- 
line, or measure of any kind, we could only judge of the relative 
heights, and other dimensions, of these great ruins. Not wish- 
ing to be minute in detail, — as it was not my intention to 
write for the guidance of architects, — it did not seem important 
to attend to these particulars. Had we attempted to give the 
exact size and height of all we saw, a single temple would have 
required half the season for its accomplishment ; and, at the end 
of three years, the business would have scarcely commenced. 

All the sculpturings on the walls and massive pillars — the 
little of them not concealed by filth and sand — are exquisite 
and marvellous, as everything is in the valley of the Nile that 
has survived the wreck of ages to these latter days. This was 



192 A PILGRIMAGE TO EGYPT. 

a priestly citadel, to my apprehension, in which the cunning 
occupants were safe from attacks without, of political enemies ; 
while the paintings, statues, figures, and a gorgeous worship of 
the gods of the people, quite overawed, and made manageable, 
the masses of superstitious beings dwelling around its sacred 
precincts. The noble court, and all covered apartments, — 
such as the world is challenged to produce elsewhere, — might 
all be cleared out. Sand has accumulated outside, so as quite 
to hide its western side ; and a mound has gradually accu- 
mulated at the top of that, so that the remnants of mud 
houses, pottery and bricks, have contributed to raise it full one 
hundred and fifty feet above the level of the ground-plot of the 
temple, at the period of its erection. Arabs have actually set 
their hovels on the roof of this magnificent ruin ; and, in fact, 
families are nestling, like rooks, all over it, — pouring out their 
daily accumulations of filth, to augment and cement the masses 
already there. 

Some Bedouin Arabs were at Edfou, from the interior of the 
Libyan -Desert, — a wild, sinewy race of restless men. A poor, 
sick Arab accosted me, on the wall, for assistance, who appeared 
to be suffering dreadfully from a stone in the bladder. It was 
impossible to give him even temporary relief. I saw a man 
making a spike, in front of the temple, in a tiny charcoal fire, 
blown by an instrument composed of two skins tied to an iron 
pipe. A woman raised first one and then the other, alternately, 
and pressed them down to the ground to squeeze the wind out. 
This is a specimen of the useful arts at Edfou, the beautiful. 

Saltpetre works, extensive as they are at Dendera, have been 
abandoned at Edfou. All the old mounds yield that salt in 
abundance ; and if the pasha would lease or sell the right to 
manufacture it to a company with a small capital, a handsome 
profit might be realized. 



ESNE. 193 

Dec. lOtk. Tuesday. — Immediately on arriving at Esne, 
we passed through the bazaar, at the top of a mound, that con- 
ceals a beautiful temple, into which a descent is made by rude 
stairs. I was lost in admiration and renewed astonishment at 
the achievements of these old temple-builders. A quarter of a 
mile from the town is a modern two-story house, of wood and 
stone, having blinds over the harem windows. It is called a 
palace ; and it stands in the midst of a garden, w^hich we paid 
a fee for entering. This was like all modern Egyptian gardens, 
stiff and formal, — containing no great variety of flowers, a few 
orange-trees and tamarasks, with rivulets of water running to 
the roots of all the plants, drawn up at a sakkia, by oxen, near 
the river. There were some figs, also, nearly ripe, which are 
not common so far up the Nile. Weaving was going on in the 
narrow streets. We noticed a young fellow industriously 
weaving, in front of a mud hovel, a red border into the fringe 
of a f^hawl. Mohammed All's cotton-factory is no longer in 
operation at Esne. Some of the machinery was lying on the 
ground, perishing as fast as rust can destroy it. 

On the return to the boat, a house was passed where a 
number of women were howling with a vehemence that led to 
the conclusion that a death might have just occurred. They 
were seated on the floor, and making a shocking outcry. There 
were several mummy-cases, with mummies in them, lying by 
the side of the passage into the subterranean temple; but the 
police, or whoever they were, accompanying us, were shocked 
at the idea of raising the lid of one of them, for a look at the 
contents. One of them sputtered and gesticulated w^th suffi- 
cient violence to induce us to desist. 

About six miles from Esne, we passed a large party of 
desert Bedouins. Their camels were unladen, asses at liberty, 
and immense masses of packages were heaped up near the 
17 



194 A PILGRIMAGE TO EGYPT. 

river. Women, children and slaves, were roaming about, in 
the enjoyment of the best and richest of all sights to them, — 
the water, in inexhaustible quantity. Mat-bags, standing on 
end upon, the sand, probably contained their provisions and 
domestic effects. 

Dec. 11. Wed?iesday. — At Thebes. The last was a tem- 
pestuous night, of high, dry wind. I was quite nauseated with 
the surging of the boat, and had some fear it might capsize. 
Early this morning, we crossed the river from Luxor to the 
west side, to explore Thebes, — the wonder of ages, and admir- 
ation of travellers, from the first knowledge we have of the 
existence of its mighty edifices. Having examined the temples 
nearest to the landing, we wound along between the bold 
mountains, over a wide road, that had been excavated thousands 
of years, by which the bodies of regal tenants of the costly 
tombs beyond had been conveyed. I can conceive of the 
imposing appearance of the wailing multitudes that thronged 
this winding way of the dead, when the priesthood, in the 
meridian of its political influence, as the machine of state, in 
gorgeous apparel, overawed the assembled thousands. A mul- 
titude crowned the hill-tops to witness the grand spectacle of 
conveying the beloved of the gods to one of the d^rk, deep 
receptacles cut into the solid rock, beneath the mountains. 
Thebes, the magnificent, — filled with architectural glories, — 
was, in part, defended by the mountains from the advancing 
sands of the Libyan Desert, which, like the cohorts of a Roman 
army, could only be restrained by barriers interposed by nature, 
but never by the resistance of opposing man. It was full four 
miles to the mouths of the tombs, which, for convenience, are 
numbered. Nos. 14, 2, 10, 35, and some others not recollected, 
were thoroughly examined; and my astonishment was increased 
by what I saw, quite beyond all previous conceptions of the 



TOilBS CUT IN THE KOCK. 



195 



indefatigable efforts of those Vv^onderful people, the ancient 
Egyptians. We came square up to the foot of a spur of a 
mountain, at the end of a path that branched off from the com- 
mon highway. By digging down five, six, and, perhaps, ten 
feet, through sand, flint pebbles and shingle, that appeared to 
have sifted down the side of the mountain from above, there 
was a regular square doorway, the lintels being well wrought. 
We then descended an inclined plane, till the first apartment, 
as a general example, was fifty feet below the road-level above 
the entrance. On each side, descending the stairs, were little 
rooms, hewn into the rock, in which the walls of some — and, in 
fact, all, to some extent — were covered with painted illustrations 
of the every-day occupations of the inhabitants of the period 
when they were executed. The colors of red, green, blue, 
yellow, &c., were vivid, and not faintly obscure, leaving it for 
the imagination to complete the outline, or fill up the details. 









INTERIOR OF PICTURED TOMB. 



We kept descending, on an easy inclination, from one large, 
beautifully cut, carved and finished room to another, — three 
hundred and twenty feet, in one of them, in a horizontal line. 
They are cut into a porous limestone, in which flint pebbles are 
strewn in profusion, of sizes from a pea to irregular nodules of 
a foot long and six inches in thickness. It must have been 
excessively difficult, therefore, to cut through them. Some 
of the walls were polished to the smoothness of glass by being 



196 A PILGRIMAGE TO EGYPT. 

covered with a fine cement, not very dissimilar to enamel, on 
the surface of which are raised figures, numerous, beyond all 
attempts at computation. Their finish is exquisite, compli- 
cated, and difficult to copy, or even imitate. All the way to 
these royal tombs there are mummy-pits, of which the Arabs 
find the mouth by digging through debris. The bodies of the 
old masons and artists who accomplished the beautiful, sur- 
prising, and enduring works in the neighborhood, are dragged 
out by hundreds, and broken up, with the hope of finding some- 
thing valuable on their persons. 

These elaborate subterranean structures are without parallel 
in the world. The long reign of a king scarcely gave sufficient 
time to complete a place for his interment. There was an 
evident design of concealment, when once finished, by crumb- 
ling down the sides of the mountains, so as to effectually hide 
the opening; and this too rendered it extremely difficult to 
penetrate the fallen mass, were the locality suspected or known. 

It appears to have been the leading ambition of life, from the 
monarch on the throne to the slave chained to the oar, in Ancient 
Egypt, to prepare for a comfortable resting-place in death. 
Nothing short of the resources of an absolute king, in such a 
country, could have commanded the means necessary to carry 
on to completion several of the Theban tombs now open for 
inspection. Probably the various mechanics and artists em- 
ployed in them devoted their entire existence to the particular 
sepulchre on which their skill was displayed. They must inva- 
riably have conducted all their labors by lamp-light, since there 
could have been no possible way for the sun's rays to penetrate 
more than a short distance into the tomb. No such things as 
perpendicular shafts from above, for the introduction of light and 
air, were adopted. In fact, the depth — hundreds of feet, from 
the surface to the excavation beneath— forbids the idea of 



BELZONI'S TOMB. 197 

those modern inventions. The air was perfectly good in every 
one we visited, the temperature being but a trifle higher tha^i 
the ordinary degree of heat above ground. 

It is a source of wonder with me what became of the pro- 
digious amount of material that must have been brought out 
in baskets, probably by slaves and state prisoners, as fast as the 
stone-cutters liberated it. The quantity taken from the seven- 
teen gigantic tombs of the first class would have been quite 
sufficient to have made a tolerable-sized artificial mountam. 

Beyond all doubt, there are very many more of these costly 
abodes of the dead, which may elude discovery even hundreds 
of years to come, rich in resources illustrative of the condition 
of the arts and of society at periods even more remote than the 
learned have contemplated. Even if coeval, or nearly so, with 
those that have been laid open to inspection, if found in good 
condition, they may prove of infinite value in supplying lost 
links in the long line of Egyptian history. 

Actuated by a well-grounded belief that there were more 
tombs than had been discovered, Belzoni commenced a series 
of energetic researches ; and, by vigorously attacking the moun- 
tain sides in the gloomy gorges, where several were detected, 
he succeeded in finding one that quite threw into the shade the 
labors of his predecessors. Travellers — for the sake of order, 
and for facilitating the progress of strangers who go up to the 
valley of the tombs — have numbered them over the door. 
No. 17 is called Belzoni's, by common consent, in memory of 
the indefatigable discoverer. In all respects, the character of 
this particular tomb is so remarkable, that it would be inexcus- 
able not to give some particulars of the interior arrangement. 
Others have their attraction, also ; and, when fully described, 
are no less objects of profound meditation. 

In Belzoni's tomb there is a flight of steps descending 
17* 



198 A PILGRIMAGE TO EGYPT. 

twenty-four feet, on a horizontal line of twenty-nine feet. Next, 
there is a passage, eighteen and a half feet by nine. Going 
through a door, there is another stair-case, descending twenty- 
five feet. Then we came to two doors, and another passage 
twenty-nine feet in length, by w^hich a chamber was entered, 
fourteen feet by twelve, where was a deep pit, now filled. To 
any person less ardent and determined than the intrepid Bel- 
zoni, this point would have been considered, to all intents and 
purposes, the terminus of the tomb. The pit was intended for 
a deception by the architect, and was admirably calculated to 
put an end to all further research beyond. A wall of huge 
hewn stones gave a fine finish, and covered up, as might 
generally have been supposed, the rough cuttings of the stone. 
However, by striking it, evidence was obtained of space beyond. 
He soon forced an opening, and thus gained access to apart- 
ments which had been hermetically sealed from the action of 
the elements, and from human eyes, all of three thousand two 
hundred and ten years. It was the burial-place of Osirei, who 
was made King of Egypt 1385 years before Christ. He was 
the father of Rameses II., who ascended the throne of his 
father 1355 years before our epoch. 

Beyond the wall is a grand hall, twenty-six feet square, the 
roof being sustained by four pillars, covered, as are the walls of 
the apartment, with sculptured figures. A second hall follows, 
of nearly the same size, the roof supported by two columns, not 
finished. Another stair-case descends from the first hall. Two 
more passages followed, and then we entered a room seventeen 
by fourteen feet, from which there was an entrance, through a 
door, into another splendid apartment, twenty-seven feet square, 
the weight above sustained by six pillars, — the original rock, 
— left standing by cutting away about them. Then thert 
•vas still another chamber, vaulted, nineteen feet by thirty, in 



RELIEFS UPON THE TOMBS. 199 

the centre of which was, when first opened, an alabaster sar- 
cophagus. A stairway, each side, goes down still further into 
the hard rock, one hundred and fifty feet. Since the eventful 
day of the discovery, some of the rooms have sufiered prodi- 
giously by the depredations of visiters ; some places have fallen 
in, and an air of ruinous progress is noticeable. The royal 
body was unquestionably stolen by the priests, immediately 
after its interment, for the treasures deposited with it. Sev- 
eral of the tombs have in them enormous granite coffins ; the 
very lid of one we examined would require the united strength 
of fifty men, lifting by their fingers, to replace it over the sar- 
cophagus, from whence it was no doubt thrown for the sake of 
pillaging within. 

Were an attempt made to describe the reliefs, endless in 
number and design, in this or other tombs of the old despots 
who were buried in them, it would swell my journal to unwieldy 
dimensions. The interior finish is by far the most extraordi- 
nary part of them. A very common stone-cutter might have 
picked his course into the bowels of the mountains; but it 
required an experienced artist to delineate the multitudinous 
groups of figures raised above the common plane of the ceiling, 
and to design and execute the painted scenes. 

It is a sickening sight to see the ground strewn with skulls, 
trunks, thigh-bones, hands, feet, ribs, jaws and teeth, which the 
hyenas drag and gnaw, and then abandon, as the reckless 
Arabs do, when they can extract nothing from them that will 
gratify cupidity on the one hand, or a ravenous animal appetite 
on the other. The collections, or rather drifts, of mummy-^ 
cloth, torn from the bodies, and thrown about by the winds, is 
also a sight sickening and shocking, when taken in connection 
with the purposes to which it was appropriated, and the cir- 
cumstances which have once more exposed it to the glare of 



200 A PILGRIMAGE TO EGYPT. 

human eyes. If any merchant chose to offer a mere trifle for 
the cotton cloth that might be picked up at Sakkara and 
Thebes, — and which will increase rather than diminish, — the 
speculation would be a productive one, for paper-rags. I 
inspected the texture of this cloth, — the thread, the twist of it, 
and the general character of the web, for it is of all degrees of 
fineness, — and I am constrained to declare that it equals, in 
all respects, the cottons from the best English and American 
mills. I did not detect linen in a single instance. The quan- 
tity presupposes an active cotton-manufacturing population; 
for the millions of yards still under ground, in a perfect condi- 
tion, must far exceed the amount exposed. For more than one, 
and, it may be, two thousand years, these sacrilegious depre- 
dations of the wild men of the deserts have been going on. 
They plunder the graves for the treasures they may find. 
Ancient jewelry is thus recovered, and to a remunerating 
amount, or the business would not have been continued 
through forty generations. The signet-ring of Cheops, the 
builder of the great pyramid of Geezeh, was singularly 
obtained by these grave-thieves. Feet, hands, and other parts 
of bodies, were offered for sale by a few straggling Arabs, who 
followed in our wake. 

Should I attempt a description of the multitudinous and elab- 
orate remains of the most superb edifices that were ever proba- 
bly made of stone, no adequate idea would be conveyed ; and I 
feel it proper to say, once for all, that whatever there is on the 
surface remaining of the works at Thebes, however thoroughly 
they may be examined, cannot be delineated. Where these 
blocks came from, how they were managed at all, and who 
could have conceived the idea of grappling with such gigantic 
masses, is quite beyond comprehension. One single statue, of 
red granite, overturned, and broken in several pieces, must 



GEOLOGICAL FORMATION OF MOUNTAINS. 201 

have been transported one hundred and twenty-four miles, 
either before or after being finished. In its perfect condition, 
it has been computed to have weighed over eight hundred tons. 
Its body was of the diameter of a tolerable-sized house. A bit 
of it was broken off, and brought away. "We also obtained a 
piece of the vocal statue, from the middle of the instep of the 
left foot. It is covered by faint Greek inscriptions, and frac- 
tured quite through. After wandering over and among the 
rains, and wondering, and scarcely crediting the revelations 
made to our eyes, we retraced our steps to the boat. Through- 
out, the mountains, in the region of the tombs, are filled with 
sea-shells, of various sizes and forms. They are as solid as 
stone ; and show that this was once the bottom of the ocean, 
and that these animals lived in the water that covered the 
land. The petrifactions of shells are sufficiently remarkable 
to give employment to geologists for some time, before they can 
define the period when Thebes was elevated from the sea. We 
noticed, in some of the great blocks of stone, in the pyramids 
of Geezeh, ammonites of good size. The shells, therefore, are 
venerable, for they were formed before the stone in which they 
are imbedded. 

Among the lounging, straggling, idle Arabs who followed us 
wherever we happened to turn, importuning us to buy their 
antiques, — chiefly sacred beetles, and small bronze figures, 
— was a man who evidently felt himself a little superior to 
those about him, for he spoke of his planted ground, and his 
general prosperity, as he had four wives, ten boys, and five 
horses. Our guide, a tall, spare Arab, of about fifty, was 
induced to speak of his condition, also, on perceiving that an 
interest was taken in the observations of his neighbor. He 
had only two wives, and five children ; one of the women was 
moosh-tibe, — that is, bad. On returning to the boat, a com- 



202 A PILGRIMAGE TO EGYPT. 

pany of dancing-girls, with cymbals, bells in their girdles, and 
other apparatus belonging to their profession, were paraded on 
the wet sand, accompanied by a tambourine-player, and a per- 
former on the two-stringed fiddle. They gesticulated to the 
worth of a few paras, and then retired. The cheapest way of 
getting rid of unpleasant company, at all times, was to pay 
them for going away. 

Some of the first apartments of tombs nearest to the ruins 
are occupied as dwellings by the present Thebans. In one — 
a room nearly, if not quite, a hundred feet in length — was the 
home of a flock of sheep. A woman, who lived in the mouth 
of another sepulchre, on which were the remains of ancient 
paintings, became very importunate for b^ckshiesh. Pay these 
people their price for any service or privilege, and, unless they 
have backshiesh over and above, they are quite as dissatisfied 
as they apparently would be had they nothing at all. 

Dec. 12th. Thursday. — Visited the tombs of Thebes, as 
numbered in the work of Sir Gardiner Wilkinson, 17, 9, 11, 
14, 15, 6 ; and I am at a loss for language to indicate my 
gratification. If the ruins before us excited perpetual exclama- 
tions of wonder and surprise, the tombs explored made us dumb 
for want of new expressions. Being without parallel in the 
whole world, it is not probable they will ever be either imitated 
or excelled in any subsequent age. A succession of surprises 
met us at every step, in Egypt. A second time we went for 
an examination of the temples. It is an event in a man's life 
to have seen them at all ; therefore we concluded to acquire a 
correct idea of the original plan, with an exact knowledge of 
the present condition of the whole. An English gentleman, by 
the name of Smith, joined our party on the way, and our 
researches were conducted jointly. We went together to the 
celebrated tomb discovered by Belzoni. On our slow march, 



RUINS OF KARNAK. 203 

we saw a jackal, looking down from a high elevation to the 
necropolis below, as though he would like a bone to pick of one 
of the company. Having completed the survey, the party 
became separated; so that I found myself alone with the 
donkey-driver. Two small Arab boys followed, on foot, all 
day, with a little jar of water, — offering it whenever we came 
to a halt. I gave them hard biscuit and dates, occasionally, 
and next pursued the way to the river. Two sailors were 
sporting with a small boat, who were pressed to land me across 
the Nile, opposite the vast accumulation of Cyclopsean ruins at 
Karnak, a mile and a half below Luxor. I scrambled over 
fields, leaped dykes, and skulked out of sight of Arabs at work, 
— passing several women tending goats, — and ultimately 
came suddenly upon the mightiest of all ruins yet contemplated. 
It w^as perfectly overwhelming to look upon such mountains 
of hewn stone, lofty gateways, splendid columns, — standing 
with the irregularity, apparently, of forest trees. Some obe- 
lisks are still standing, towering towards the skies, solitary and 
alone, yet bearing on their polished sides, in bold characters, 
the whole story, perhaps, of Karnak, which no one can satis- 
factorily read or comprehend. Many are broken. They throw 
into the shade all other remains in Egypt ; and Karnak may 
justly be called the tomb of architecture. 

It was thought, on the whole, a hazardous feat to visit Kar- 
nak alone, as I did, — wandering from one extremity of the 
fallen majesty of sculptured stone to another; and, finally, 
trudging up to Luxor without a guide, save the remnant of two 
rows of sphinxes, that once lined the whole way. They are 
nearly all destroyed. Some have no heads, others no bodies ; 
and a few more years will utterly obliterate the last vestiges 
of the most imposing and lofty designs ever executed to give 
effect, splendor and majesty, to a place of worship, St. Peter's, 



204 A PILGRIMAGE TO EGYPT. 

at Rome, is a toy, a mere tinsel plaything, compared to the 
overwhelming grandeur of forsaken Karnak. 

When I got to the boat, a large, swarthy Arab, in a big tur- 
ban, was sitting, with, a small boy, by the side of a conical 
basket. He rose, offered me his hand, and said that he had 
heard I was a hakem from the New World. He further 
observed that he was a doctor, also. He was a native snake- 
charmer, one of the Psilli, — a race of ancient renown. Eun- 
ning his hand into the basket, he drew out an adder, a yard in 
length, opened his own mouth, and tucked the head of the 
resisting reptile in, coil after coil, till there was no more room ; 
when, by the tail, he slowly drew it out. The eyes of the 
snake sparkled, and his forked tongue played like flashes of 
light, when the operator laid it down on deck. Directly the 
serpent raised its head an inch or two, when the Arab shook 
his finger, muttered an incantation, and down went the snake, 
as though dead. He then tied it in knots, twined it round 
his own neck, and performed other feats, that made me keep a 
bright look-out lest I should get bitten in some careless mo- 
ment. He assured me he could call any serpent from the 
crevices in the rocks, or wherever they might be, and handle 
them with impunity. Thej would be quite as obedient, he 
declared, at first sight, as after being in his possession. He 
was anxious for an engagement to go into the barrans, among 
the boulders, back of the town, to call the snakes out, the 
next day. The boy who was with him handled all those in 
the basket with perfect freedom. Soon after, my friends — 
Messrs. Holland and Warren — came up, and five small, whip- 
lash-looking snakes, in ringed folds, were drawn forth. Being 
straightened, by strokes of the hand, till they were parallel, the 
Arab suddenly put the hank of vital cords round the neck of 
Mr. Holland. There they hung, while their tongues and tails 



SERPENTS IN EGYPT. 205 

indicated an activity that shocked me. I told him we were not 
so accomplished in America as the hakems were in Egypt, if 
this was to be considered an accomplishment; nor had the 
profession been driven to the necessity of eating snakes, how- 
ever much in danger they might be of eating each other, at the 
rate they were multiplying when I left home. 




Serpents not only quarter themselves in gardens, and about 
the mounds of rubbish in the villages and towns of Egypt, but 
actually ensconce themselves in dwelling-houses, from whence 
it is extremely difficult to dislodge them, without the assistance 
of the Psilli, or snake-charmers. A physician of Cairo told me 
that two tolerably large serpents were in his garden ; but they 
eluded all his attempts to kill them, and he supposed it would 
be necessary to send for one of the regular craft to entrap them. 
A few weeks before this was related, he further observed that 
a snake-charmer was accidentally bitten by a small, venomous 
snake that he exhibited; and, although the wounded man 
applied to him immediately, the action of the poison could not 
be arrested, and the poor fellow died in agony. He supposed 
18 



206 A PILGRIMAGE TO EGYPT. 

there must have been some remissness on the part of the exhib- 
itor, for the occurrence was a rare one. 

Dec. I'^th. Friday. — In good season, this morning, I again 
visited Karnak, in company with Messrs. Holland and Warren. 
Two impudent Arabs requested to be taken into service for the 
day, as guides ; but my experience yesterday showed it was 
quite unnecessary. They insisted upon going, which we firmly 
forbade. One of them, with an expectation of alarming us, 
assumed a dictatorial tone, and ordered us to return forthwith 
to the boat, — declaring he would complain to the governor, 
who would send twenty men to arrest us for disobedience to his 
commands. He could not have been familiar with Yankee 
character; for himself, the whole population of Luxor, and the 
pasha into the bargain, were defied, and invited to come on, — 
the sooner the better. The rascals sneaked away, and no fur- 
ther molestation was offered. We leisurely surveyed the con- 
fused ruins, — far more extensive and important than any others 
in the world, in our humble estimation. There is stone enough 
quarried, of all sizes, shapes and dimensions, to build a great 
city; and yet it all belonged to a series of grand and lofty 
edifices, which, collectively, were a single tempLe. I have been 
as much lost in astonishment, in contemplating the character 
of the old Egyptian mind, as in these enduring monuments of 
their taste and mechanical skill. To me, the genius of the 
first architects who have ever lived, with whose works and 
designs we are acquainted, fall infinitely below the crumbling 
memorials at Edfou, Thebes, Luxor, and Karnak. I have 
been upon the Acropolis of Athens, and meditated on the 
classical ruins of the Parthenon, the Erecthseum, the temple 
of Theseus, and the noble and solemn grandeur of all that has 
withstood the combined assaults of time, the elements, and man 
in his fury, — and they are all insignificant, simple and trifling, 



POXES AMONG RUINS. 207 

compared to the conception and completion of the massive, 
extensive, noble, beautiful and dignified combination of walls, 
columns, sculptures, symbols, and architectural glories, on the 
wretched, forsaken plain of Karnak. Even the Temple of 
Jupiter Olympus — a fit habitation for the presiding god of the 
Greeks — was but a dog-kennel, in the meridian of original 
splendor, in comparison with the loftier, grander parliament- 
house of the gods of Egypt. And yet Karnak, Thebes, Luxor, 
Memphis, Abydos, and Heliopolis, w^ere all neglected and 
decaying before Greece or Rome had been moulded into nations. 
Surely the transcendant energy, skill, civilization and intellect- 
uality, of the early Egyptians, is neither understood nor appre- 
ciated. 

While sauntering round the overturned walls, broken pillars, 
and upturned obelisks, two gray foxes were leaping over the 
apartments where none but the feet of kings and royal priests 
were permitted to tread, before all the beauty, sanctity and 
majesty of Karnak, became the hiding-place for reptiles, and 
man refused to remain where the gods were once supposed to 
have a local habitation. We followed them till they skulked 
away between some fallen capitals, or .columns, — it is not 
essential to remember which, since the degradation is suffi- 
ciently obvious, without particularizing the dens of reptiles and 
rapacious animals. 

I picked up the skin of a serpent five feet long, in what is 
designated the lying-in room of a royal temple, near the tombs, 
in Thebes. We looked about warily, for fear of stepping on the 
venomous creature that had shed it, now the tenant of the 
birth-room, perhaps, of some of the Pharaohs ! 

An Ena:lish gentleman, in goggles, -was met to-day, whom I 
saw at Karnak yesterday, with whom we held pleasant con- 
versation. 



208 A PILGEIMAGE TO EGYPT. 

Returning to Luxor in the faintly-defined avenue that was 
doubtless , once guarded by sphinxes all the way, we came \o 
an extensive saltpetre manufactory. Vats are dug, and ceiled 
with plaster, to make them tight, — covering an acre and a 
half. The light, rich, black mould, gathered within and about 
the ruins of Karnak, shovelled up with the bare hands, and not 
with shovels, — tools not being procurable, — is carried, in 
baskets, on the backs of donkeys, to the works. There it is 
leached, and the strong liquor evaporated in the broad, shallow 
vats, till the salt is crystallized and dry. Were pains taken 
to excavate systematically, simply for supplying the manufac- 
turing establishment, hidden treasures of art would, unquestion- 
ably, be constantly recovered. A small temple, or, at least, the 
appendage of one., was being revealed while I was looking on. 

Mr. Stephenson, the engineer of the tubular bridge over the 
Menai Straits, passed by, up the river, yesterday ; but we 
missed him. He must have gained some new ideas, in regard 
to the mechanical attainments of the ancients, that will contrast 
favorably with any of his own designs. 

Hassan came for money; he has a second wife, with a 
daughter, here, back of Luxor. Had we kept on to Dongola, 
he would, probably, have found a series of them, at convenient 
distances, all the way. With the cash, we sent his second spouse 
a little fruit, and other delicacies. We had advanced money for 
his wife number one at Alexandria, before sailing. With all 
our curiosity and tact, we did not get a sight of madam or 
the daughter. Hassan had the blood of a true Mussulman in 
his veins ; consequently, we might have known they were not 
to be seen. 

Dec. l^tk. — Last night was extremely cold ; I would have 
been thankful for one of my mother's comforters. Drifted 
down stream famously, since yesterday, and, at noon, were 



COMPANIONS IN EXCURSIONS. 209 

again at Keneh. Dendera — which afforded us so much grat- 
ification on the upward voyage — was in sight. Keneh is dis- 
tinguished for the manufacture of pottery. The east side of 
the river was lined with rafts of water-jars, just ready to float 
off for Cairo to a market. Owing to the constant endeavor, 
on the part of the men, to counteract the leakage of the 
unglazed pots, sailing on these rafts is very much like working 
a passage on a canal by leading the horse. Even when lying 
up against a mud-bank, there is no rest either for pots or crew ; 
for the leaking is all the while going on. 

In making Nile voyages, it is common to fall in with per- 
sons bound to the same localities which you may propose visit- 
ing, and who would like to become companions for the day, or 
two days, according to the character of the explorations. There 
is economy in this, in regard to the expense of guides ; and 
several donkeys may be hired to better advantage than one. 
There is presumed to be also more security by increasing the 
numbers of a party. But one of the serious drawbacks upon 
the pleasure of these ruin-hunting excursions, if not upon the 
profits of travelling, especially with limited means, is to have a 
person with you who is never ready to begin, or willing to stop 
when he has commenced, an exploration. Some are never 
satisfied with contemplating scenery in which another finds 
less enjoyment. I have been with a person who cared nothing 
about pictures, of the highest style of art ; while another would 
sit and contemplate the same canvas by hours together, pro- 
vided it had been spoken of favorably by a distinguished some- 
body, who influenced the public sentiment. In short, I have 
suffered excessively by being associated with those of a diamet- 
rically opposite taste, or no taste at all ; and, while travelling 
in Egj^pt, particularly, each and all are cau.tioned against this 
vexation, of being obliged to wait too long, or hurry away toe 



210 A PILGRIMAGE TO EGYPT. 

quickly, on account of those in whom you have no special inter- 
est. Never go into Thebes or Karnak, the tombs or catacombs, 
subject to the whims and caprices of a disagreeable wayside 
acquaintance. 

Ali, our boy, was asked to-day what would be his course, if 
he could do precisely as he desired. He answered, frankly, that, 
if he could procure four purses, — equivalent to one hundred dol- 
lars, — he would buy a wife with one, make a present to the 
bint's father, and with the second make a feast, buy clothes 
for his wife ; and, when he grew into a man, " den I have more 
wife." He was fourteen years of age ! As the twig is bent, 
the tree is inclined. This is a national characteristic. 

Dec. \bth. Sunday. — Very cold last night ; but, when the 
sun came out, it was first warm, and then sultry. This is the 
holy Sabbath, but no day of rest in Egypt. Not being a 
Christian country, there is no reason for wondering why there 
are no sacred observances. There is no day of holy rest or 
contemplation, even on Friday, to the people. Those holding 
official stations under the pasha are quite willing to close their 
bureaus on Friday, because they are drawing pay ; but those 
who subsist by their labor can nev^r relax. On Fridays, in 
cities, a few pious Mussulmans, whose circumstances permit, 
throng the mosques ; but no secular business — in the bazaars, 
the shops of mechanics, in the streets, on the fai-ms, or river- 
craft — suspended, as far as we could discover, a single 
moment. Passed Abydos, and many small villages. Saw 
several hundred monstrous white pelicans, just below, on 
a mud-bar. They walked with a stately gait, without being 
alarmed at the sight of animals or men on shore, but kept a 
watchful ejQ on us. 

Dec. Wtk. Mo?iday. — To obtain domestic supplies was an 
apology for going into Ekhmin, in connection with a desire to 



EKHMIN. 211 

examine the dust of the extinct city of Panopolis, on a portion 
of the site of which is the modern mean mud-town. Full thirty 
feet below the surface of the vast accumulated mounds of stone, 
brick, earthen ware, bones and filth, we saw the very last rem- 
nant of a splendid temple, bearing a Greek inscription on the 
corner. By digging, the marble stone was exposed; but the 
villagers were actually knocking that curious and extremely 
valuable antique to pieces, and burning it, piecemeal, into lime ! 
The kiln was contiguous, the fire being wholly maintained by 
grass. A few rods further, there was a deep hollow, in which 
were large blocks of hewn stone, formerly constituting the 
walls of a vastly spacious edifice. The land level is, upon an 
average, twenty feet, throughout Ekhmin, above the original 
level. This shows that ages must have been required to accu- 
mulate those extraordinary tumuli. In the bazaars, many well- 
dressed Arabs were smoking, as everywhere else, and playing 
a singular game of chance, by sliding shells into depressions in 
a piece of plank, half the depth of a tea-cup. Some of the 
smokers were jet-black negroes ; but they sipped coffee, smoked, 
played and chatted with the whites, as companions and inti- 
mate friends. A prejudice has not been manifested against 
color, in the course of my observations here, excepting among 
the wild geese. We often saw the black ones by themselves, 
and never, in a single instance, associated with those of white 
plumage. It was difficult to determine which was the aristo- 
cratic party. 

Blind persons were numerous, led about by their children, or 
feeling their way alone. Very many were noticed who were 
suffering from acute inflammation of one eye. Nobody pre- 
tended to be so extravagant as to sport two optics. Mechanics 
of every description, even to blacksmiths, were sitting flat on 
the ground, at their vocations. In passing out of the town, we 



212 A PILGllIMAGE TO EGYPT. 

went through a very extensive cemeter^^ There was f, large 
number of whitewashed sheik-tombs, some having a small 
niche or recess in front, into which a devout Mussulman could 
squeeze, and conduct his devotional exercises. There is not a 
grave-yard in the United States, I apprehend, in which so 
many acres of ground have been filled with the bodies of 
human beings. The fields were extremely verdant, and the 
weather delightful. 

The antiquities of Ekhmin — or, as some both write and pro- 
nounce it, Akhmim — would give full employment to an ardent 
antiquarian several months ; and then he would be obliged to 
retire with a very imperfect knowledge of what has been there 
in the form of cities and temples. The present town is on the 
site of Chemmis, once one of the great cities of the Thebiad. 
Vestiges of enormously large buildings are still recognized, 
widely extended over the region. 

Strabo speaks of the antiquity of this place. The inhabit- 
ants in the age of Herodotus, when it was called Panopolis, 
showed that historian certain genealogies of Perseus, Lynceus 
and Danaus, who were natives of the city, and afterwards emi- 
OTated to Greece. While we were luxuriatingf in the bland 
sunshine, day after day, the ground in Europe and the United 
States must have been frozen, and covered with ice and snow. 

Dec. 11th. Wed?iesday. — The difficulty with the reis pro- 
gresses ; he is determined not to row. Although the wind 
blew last night, and even through the day, the sun poured his 
dazzling splendors on Egypt. Slovv^ly drifting ; now two hun- 
dred and seventy miles from Cairo, — consequently becoming 
impatient, since the crew render but little assistance. 

Dec. IStk. Thursday. — A day unproductive in incidents. 
Mr. Holland went on shore at Assioot. Cold nights and hot 
days. The reis provoked us outrageously, so that Mr. War- 



HAWKEES OF ANTIQUITIES. 213 

ren wishes him bastinadoed. Just nine miles from Manfaloot, 
approaching the celebrated tombs of Beni Hassan. 

Dec. 19th. Friday. — Both sleepy and provoked. The con- 
duct of the reis — who stands in no fear of us, — is insufferable. 
He is practising an old Nile game, — procrastination, — and 
thus expects to eke out the time, upon the principle that time is 
money \ especially as he expects to sponge it out of us. It is 
our intention to enter a complaint against him at the first 
pashalic we arrive at. 

Towards nightfall, arrived at a dusty mud- village, and 
walked over the melancholy ruins of ruins where once stood 
the proud imperial city of Artinoe, a Roman creation, on the 
still more ancient dust of generations to which neither records 
nor memory reach. Several massive, finely-proportioned red 
granite columns are standing, like solitary trees in an open 
field, buried half their length. Scattered brick, strong arches, 
heavy and well-hammered stone, independent of columns, pros- 
trate, marred and broken, indicated the strong old Roman 
masonry, which is wholly distinct, and never to be mistaken 
for Egyptian workmanship. A perfect troop of bare-footed, 
half-nude Arab girls scampered and re-collected round us, 
according to our indications of wrath or good-nature at their 
importunities. They had old Roman coins, many of Greek 
origin, with a few of an older date ; but most of them were 
imperfect. Anything passes for an antiquity on the Nile. The 
poor power of discrimination between what is and what is not 
valuable has led these hawkers and pedlers to annoy every- 
body seen in a Frank costume, as they seem to suppose nothing 
comes amiss to them which is purchased among the ruins. I 
have had an Arab present an old copper watch-seal, and another 
a brass button. They were, no doubt, thought by the poor crea- 
tures of rare value, because they were unlike the common run 



214 A PILGRIMAGE TO EGYPT. 

of articles found by them. Naked children, idle men, and 
sauntering women, surrounded us, and were clamorous for 
backshiesh. 

By four o'clock in the afternoon we arrived opposite the 
renowned grottos of Beni Hassan, — a series of tombs exca- 
vated in the limestone, at an elevation of two hundred feet 
above the river, lying easterly, the distance of a mile and a 
half from where the small boat landed us. These tombs belong 
to a very remote antiquity, and have always been distin- 
guished for the beauty of their proportions and finish. The 
whole ledge or mountain is a mass of pebbles and marine 
shells, singularly commingled. It is clear, therefore, that the 
entire mass, for hundreds of miles, stretching out under the sand 
of the desert, — perhaps to the Red Sea, — from this point, was 
once the bed of a quiet ocean. The shell-fish were the natu- 
ral product, and must have been perpetuated for cycles beyond 
human computation, to have created a mountain of their shells. 
One generation after another settled into the plastic, quiescent 
bed, and thus strata were formed of alternate beds of lime and 
skeletons. By and by, an upheaval force from below raised the 
whole above the circumambient waters; and there it remains, a 
monument to record the genealogical revolutions that have been 
effected in this part of Africa. Then, again, unnumbered ages 
rolled on, and man finally wandered from the primitive home 
of his ancestors, and settled in Egypt. Another series of unde- 
fined lustrums moved on, and human beings were multiplied, 
till the valley of the Nile was alive with the hum of human 
beings and industry. When the dead outnumbered the living, 
and the gleamings of a future state were obscurely perceived 
by the sages, a doctrine of the immortality of the soul was 
predicated, perhaps, on the incorruptibility and preservation of 
the body. This led to mechanical devices for securing the 



EGYPTIAN TOMBS. 215 

perishable fabric of mortality ; and mummy-pits, royal sepul- 
chres and grottoes, like these of Beni Hassan, were constructed, 
excelling in workmanship anything of the kind in other parts 
of the world ; and far exceeding, as we are accustomed to esti- 
mate the price of labor, the aggregate cost of all other kinds 
and forms of resting-places for the dead, in any age or country. 
Some, if not all these tombs, w^ere between two and three thou- 
sand years old at the commencement of the Christian era ; 
they may safely be contemplated, therefore, as the oldest mon- 
uments of the kind on the globe. They were antiques before 
the foundations of Thebes w^ere laid ; and they bid fair to resist 
the pulverizing activity of time, and the depredations of barba- 
rians, for ten centuries to come. 

Many of the tombs are pleasant stone rooms, — without win- 
dows, of course, — with an arched or flat ceiling over head, 
according to the taste of the proprietor. Some had two rooms, 
side by side, and others one apartment beyond the other. To 
give them a finish and fine efiect, there are some with square 
pillars, reaching from the floor to the roof, while in others they 
are round and fluted. One of the grottos had four fluted col- 
umns, acknowledged to be the oldest known to architects in 
the world. Dr. Lepsius has actually cut aw^ay one of them, 
by taking six feet in length ofl" to Berlin, for his master's 
museum. A few feet of the remnant hangs down from the 
ceiluig, like the stump of a stalactite, while the lower end, not 
far from two feet, still rests on the floor. They w^ere not 
inserted columns, but parts of the original rock, left standing 
by excavating round them. All the grottos have elegantly- 
chiselled doorways, — the doors having been destroyed, nobody 
knows when. In one corner of each of the tombs is a square 
hole, cut into the rock, which goes down to an unknown depth, — 
perhaps from sixty to a hundred feet, — with singular bolt-holes, 



216 A PILGRIMAGE TO EGYPT. 

for fastening down a heavy trap-door. This was the mummy- 
pit, filled and hermetically sealed, no doubt ; but rifled by van- 
dal Persians, in some of their predatory inroads, for the gold 
and precious things that may have been upon them. In these 
tombs are immense series of drawings on the walls, in red, 
blue, green and black colors, in which are illustrated all the 
pursuits of the people at the period of their execution. We are 
possessed of no art that was not known to them, according to 
these paintings. Men and animals figure in all conceivable 
positions, life-like and spirited. We were very much sur- 
prised at several long rows of figures, representing gymnastic 
feats and exercises. In all the exhibitions witnessed, either in 
Europe or at home, of posture-masters, none of them approached 
these multitudinous twistifications of the human form ; even 
the India-rubber man, w^ho almost tied his own legs into a hard 
knot, never came up to the climax of contortions practised by 
those old Egyptian performers. They probably sat for the 
limner, and that explains the success of the artist. They are 
usually from a foot to eighteen inches tall. Most of the draw- 
ings and pictures, however, have been exposed to the action of 
the elements, through an open door ; the rude touch of barbari- 
ans, w^ho have made these tombs their dwellings ; and, lastly, 
were subjected, just before our arrival, to worse than barbarian 
usage from Dr. Lepsius and others, who pressed damp paper 
over them, to take impressions. It now requires the assistance 
of a vigorous imagination to trace out all the domestic scenes 
that once must have been distinctly and beautifully portrayed. 
The Speas Artemedas — technically known as the cave of 
Diana — is the richest of the group, in all respects, the over- 
head ceiling being thrown into the form of three arches ; and 
it was in this that Dr. Lepsius committed the sacrilege of 
which all travellers bitterly complain. Hassan apologized for 



VANDAL CONDUCT OP DR. LEPSIUS. 217 

the extra appearance of dilapidation at Thebes, when we were 
approaching it, — as the Englishman did for the weather, of 
which he was ashamed, because it was so bad, — by saying 
Dr. Lepsius had spoiled everything in his country. Myself 
and companions can bear testimony to the fact that, wherever 
recent injuries have been inflicted, or something is missing 
that used to be somewhere, the guides invariably charge it 
upon that jackal provider for the lion of Prussia. He would 
doubtless justify himself by saying he carried them ofl' to save 
them. This is preserving in a reprehensible manner for those 
who traverse sea and land to see what he has either carried 
away or defaced. In one of the tombs above Thebes we 
noticed a cartouch, — that is, an oval, in relief, on the wall, 
artistically executed, containing hieroglyphics, — which had 
been cut round, with a view of chipping it out, whole, to be 
carried off; but, unluckily, one-half of it was scaled away, and, 
of course, the remainder was not wanted. Thus the import- 
ant key to other, and, perhaps, curious historical researches, 
is spoiled beyond redemption ; and the guides charged it to the 
same learned gleaner, Dr. Lepsius. There will be no excuse 
for him,*if his coming investigations into the early condition 
of monumental Egypt fall below the expectations of scholars 
and archasologists, for he has taken possession of all that is 
worth having. 

All the grottos of Beni Hassan face the west, overlooking 
an extensive region of fine meadow-land, up and down the 
Nile. When the sun sets in the cloudless sky of this hemi- 
sphere, its dazzling rays of glory penetrate the very recesses of 
these drawing-rooms of the ancient dead. On the opposite 
side of the river, in full view from Beni Hassan, further south, 
is the pulverized rubbish of a defunct town, which tradition 
designates as the residence of the Psilli, or snake-charming 
19 



218 A PILGRIMAGE TO EGYPT. 

necromancers, whom Pharaoh sent for to confront Moses, after 
he had performed those miracles recorded of him, because the 
hard-hearted, prevaricating old monarch refused to let the 
Israelites go. 

Dec. 20th. Friday. — A day fruitful of incidents. The 
unendurable conduct of the reis induced us to call at Minieh, 
the residence of a pasha, or local governor, to ask redress of 
grievances. Abuzed had repeatedly violated the contract, by 
refusing to set the crew at work ; and, consequently,, twelve 
stout Arabs have done pretty much as they chose. He had 
been repeatedly threatened with a complaint, but seemed to 
defy us. One of the sailors expressed an utter contempt for all 
tribunals, and we were therefore driven to the necessity of 
heading off any incipient mutinous show of disregard for our- 
selves, or the terrors of the law. Stern necessity was pressing, 
to my mind ; and we were determined to ascertain whether jus- 
tice could be found in Egypt, where it was once the boast that 
the rulers were the servants of the gods of Truth and Justice. 
Hauling to, towards nine o'clock, the boat was made fast ; and, 
prinking up for the august occasion, we marched up to the 
quarters of his excellency, Mohammed Bey, Pasha of Minieh 
and its dependencies, — a corpulent, well-developed, agreeable- 
looking Turk, who was seated on a rough sort of settee, cov- 
ered with a colored sheep-skin, with the wool on, under the 
shade of a wide-spreading acacia-tree. He was smoking, of 
course ; wore a red tarbousch, red shoes, a blue, close-fitting 
spencer, and monstrous trousers, of blue broadcloth. Various 
officers were sauntering about, within the great man's orbit ; — 
some with horse-pistols stuck in their sashes, w^iich were wound 
several times round their bodies ; others with staffs, and some 
with courbashes. We told Hassan, on the way up to the court, 
to translate truly, word for word ; intimating that he would for- 



A FLOGGING. 219 

feit our confidence if lie deviated a hair. His excellency 
received us politely, asked our business, and directed his myr- 
midons to bring- the accused reis into his awful presence. Abu- 
zed was horrified at his position. The case was stated, when 
the pasha said he should be flogged, if we demanded it. We 
prayed for mercy instantly, urging the pasha to make him prom- 
ise amendment ; for we were pained at the idea of inflicting 
corporal punishment on a captain, in the presence of his crew. 
The rascal promised, of course, and thus saved his bacon, 
through our intercessions. A charge was next preferred 
against JafRer, the originator and ringleader of the increasing 
insubordination. Before half the story was related, or we had 
any conception of the progress of the trial, he was thrown upon 
his face into, a clumsy wooden frame, that confined the body, 
with the feet elevated, and two of the police alternately struck 
with the courbash. While the blows were falling, and the 
culprit screaming Abbas Pasha ! Abbas Pasha ! the governor 
waved his hand, still whiffing at the pipe, and the crowd 
opened a passage-way for us to see the process. Shocking as 
it was, dreadful to be obliged to see or hear, his excellency 
puffed out a long blast of smoke, and observed to me, — I being 
the nearest to him, — " This is the way justice is administered 
in Egypt." It was all over in less time than it takes to write it. 
We were told it was a light punishment, and did not hurt him 
much. It was a comfort to have the intelligence, for I was 
suffering beyond description. We were not required to pay the 
court ; but, on taking leave, the posse gathered round for back- 
shiesh, particularly the courbash gentry. The law deals in 
blows altogether, and knows nothing of pecuniary mulcts, tardy 
police inquiries, or appeals to higher tribunals, in petty offences, 
or when a man's life is in danger. 

A memorable example of the power, activity and terribleness, 



220 A PILGRIMAGE TO Et»YPT. 

of old Mohammed All's government, was demonstrated in the 
utter desolation of two large villages, at the foot of the hill, 
near Beni Hassan, containing houses enough to accommodate 
three thousand inhabitants, and yet without a solitary tenant. 
Travellers had been repeatedly robbed, and it was becoming 
extremely dangerous to visit the tombs. Word was passed on 
to the ears of the pasha of the outrages committed. It roused 
the sleeping lion, who exerted himself in vain to detect the cul- 
prits. Without doubt, the sheiks and principal persons of the 
region connived at the depredations, and shared the plunder. 
Every one even remotely implicated was put to death, and then 
every remaining person, young, old, great and small, v/as com- 
manded forthwith to abandon the premises, and never return. 
It is safe enough now, for there is no living creature there, save 
the jackals that course over the hot sands of the desert, and 
quench their raging thirst in front of Beni Hassan. 

When we got on board, there was a rebellious uproar, and 
Jaffier was loudest of them all. They were out of bread, and 
asked for money. We hesitated a long time, not believing 
that the reis was destitute of change. A threat to take Jaffier 
back to the pasha, and all the rest of them with him, if they 
did not instantly do their duty, brought about order; the 
painter was cast off, and away the canjia floated towards Cairo 
again. 

Dec. 21st. Saturday. — This was the Jewish Sabbath, and 
the day on which the Pilgrim Fathers landed at Plymouth, 
which, as customary, will be celebrated there to-morrow. Yes- 
terday was the Mohammedan Sabbath, no way regarded in the 
miserable villages we were frequently touching at; yet they 
pray devoutly five times a day, and wherever there is a mosque, 
a preference is given to it, for the devotions of the men. I 
once saw an Arab woman at prayer on the bank of the river, 



PILORIMS RETURNING FROM JLECCA. 221 

— the only one I have ever seen personally engaged in devo- 
tional exercises. She had precious little to be thankful for, — 
being barefooted, with a single blue cotton garment, and sur- 
rounded by wretched beings, poor, bigoted, and exacting of 
females to a degree that degrades them to brutes, and subjects 
them to the perpetual caprice of men in organization but devils 
in character. 

The boat has moved briskly since the majesty of the law was 
exliibited at ]\Iinieh yesterday. Blows, after all, have a quick- 
ening influence with Arabs, that words or backshiesh never 
accomplish. On a particular occasion, after Mohammed Ali 
had ordered the infliction of a bastinado a hundred-fold worse 
than death, some Europeans waited upon his highness, inti- 
mating that civilized powers would not permit such atrocities, 
so shocking to the moral sense of Christendom. He patiently 
listened to the discourse, and, without betraying the wrath he 
smothered at their interference with his administration, quietly 
remarked, " It is all very good talk, gentlemen ; but I under- 
stand governing Arabs better than you do;" and there the 
interview closed. 

Fell in company with several boats filled with hadji, or 
pilgrims, returning from Mecca. They came with a caravan 
to Keneh, and there hired boats. Some of them were 
Algerines, but a large proportion were Turks from Constan- 
tinople, who had not only been a very long while on the 
journey, but must, with the most frugal management, have 
spent a large amount of money. If anybody can subsist on 
nothing, they can ; for they purchase nothing that can possibly 
be let alone. On one of the boats was a fair, pale, delicate 
white woman, of about thirty, who appeared in ill health; and, 
to give her the full benefit of the bland air, while our boats 
were hauled up near together, at a stopping-place, cushions 
19# 



222 A PILGRIMAGE TO EGYPT. 

were piled up under an awning, where she sat, staring upon 
us in our queer costume, — white flapped hats, and whatever 
else about our rigging that was a novelty to her large, rolling 
optics. She was a Circassian, — faded and wilting. There 
was a hull of a boat repairing, just on the margin of the bank, 
behind which I walked, as though inspecting the planking, 
which threw her and her friends off guard ; which means sim- 
ply she let her veil fall, giving me an opportunity to criticize 
her features. If she ever had been a beauty, she was not one 
now. On returning from a walk to a mound, she was seen on 
shore; and a queer sight it was. She wore huge, ungraceful 
pantaloons, and yellow boots, while her person was enveloped 
in lots of shawls, swathed on between her hips and shoulders, 
giving a grotesqueness to her figure that was unique. Off she- 
hobbled, and squatted in her old nest, with a barricaded face. 
All the men were armed with horse-pistols mounted with 
silver, and some of them wore swords. The wind blew so ter- 
rifically, for an hour or two, that we laid by opposite a field of 
halfar-grass. While waiting for its subsidence, a drove of 
Arab girls came to a watering-station, on the opposite side of 
the river, with their jars. They plunged in, and had a grand 
frolic, which lasted an hour or more. Just at dark, the boat 
began to go with the current. Two jackals trotted along, keep- 
ing pace with us, for a full mile, when the darkness prevented 
us from watching their motions any longer. 

Dec. 22d. Sunday. — An excellent run all night. Passed 
Benisooef at four o'clock in the mornino- and heard the muez- 
zin calling to prayers from a minaret. The wind was thought 
to be fatigued with blowing, according to sailor theory ; and, 
consequently, went into a state of repose quite too early in the 
day for anxious voyagers. Passed what the dragoman called the 
lyhig pyramid, — commonly known to travellers as the false 



FUNERAL PROCESSION. 225 

pyramid, — at noon, fifty miles from the capital. Some children 
hailed us from the bank, very earnestly, when one of them said 
his mother had just got a new baby, and he wanted to' get a 
name for it. All hands shouted, pretty much at a breath, 
" Call bim Mohammed." Two-thirds of the male population 
seem to bear that name already ; and the remainder are called 
Abdallah, Hassan, and Ali. ^ 

Cairo, Dec. 23d. Monday. — By urging, and the extra activ- 
ity of the crew, we arrived here at two o'clock this morning, 
at Boulac. It was something of an undertaking to pick up 
our effects, after six Aveeks of house-keeping. Before ten 
o'clock, five donkeys and one camel were hired, including Has- 
san and little All's accommodation. Both wanted to ride up 
to town like gentlemen. Settled up our domestic affairs in the 
afternoon, and were waited upon by a sheik of the desert, who 
wished to supply camels and safe-conduct for us, over the 
regions of Arabian sand, to Palestine. Several of the crew — 
spruced up in their best, with huge turbans, a blue frock, and 
red shoes — squatted round the door of our lodgings, puffing 
as gravely as pashas, waiting to catch us, in passing in or out, 
to beg for backshiesh. Even the reis had the effrontery to wait 
upon the howadjis, also, soliciting backshiesh. Alick, our favor- 
ite among the dozen, wanted a recommendation of character. 
On the way up from the port, we came through a wretched col- 
lection of mud-hovels, — noticed on a former occasion, — where 
hundreds of women were huddled together, in a narrow lane, 
howling for the death of the husband of one of them. They 
would have been justified in laughing for joy ; for it must be 
good luck when most of the husbands die. He was on a pil- 
grimage to Mecca, the news having just reached one of perhaps 
four widows. Soon after, a funeral passed through the narrow 
streets, near the coffee-bazaar, the corpse in an open box, on the 



226 A PILGRIMAGE TO EGYPT. 

shoulders of bearers, followed by a rabble of screaming womeri; 
— presumed to have been all hired for the occasion. It conveys 
the idea of the loss of a greatly-distinguished individual, when 
this show of mourning is set up. I have seen a woman raise 
herself into a perfect frenzy by her weeping and frantic gestic- 
ulations ; and all, perhaps, for a para, — the fifth part of a cent, 
— for some one she never saw, or cared a fig for, if she had. 

Cairo, Bee. 2ith. Tuesday. — Mr. Holland intimated his inten- 
tion of leaving us, and we commenced a negotiation with the 
sheik for a conveyance to Ramlah, the ancient Arimathea, the 
residence of Joseph, the owner of the new sepulchre in which 
our Saviour was laid, when taken down from the cross. I 
visited the imposing but shabby tombs of the Mameluke kings. 
They were showy when first erected ; but they are cobbled up 
stones, plastered and whitewashed, without any enduring prop- 
erties. Some are broken in the walls; others have neither 
doors nor windows ; and all of them are destined to utter anni- 
hilation, and that before many years. They are located on 
a barren sand-plain, south of the citadel, towards Fostat, — 
or Old Cairo, — the former capital. Nobody cares for them, 
and few, if any, of the vast population, know anything of the 
history of the oppressors who were buried in them. A living 
dog is more to be feared than a dead lion ; and, however orna- 
mental the once beautiful domes might have been, there is no 
national pride, no social adhesiveness, in the country, — noth- 
ing that is patriotic or progressive in the Arabic mind. To keep 
clear of the clutches of the reigning despot of to-day is of far 
more importance than protecting the hated remains of one who 
is safely dead. 

In one of the most magnificent of these royal sepulchres, we 
rode in on the donkeys, — which shows the pollution to which 
they are exposed. Little did the sleeping tyrant suppose that 



RETURN TO CAIRO. 227 

a Christian dog would ever set his detested foot near the ashes 
of a royal Moslem ; or, above all, have his dust trampled upon 
by an ass, ridden by a Frank. Such, however, is the destiny 
of kings ; — their dust is as ignoble as our own. 

While on the ground, the old aqueduct was examined, and 
also the new one, fed by a sakkia, turned by an ox, on the old 
Cairo road. Returning, we approached the citadel on its back 
side, in a deep ravine, where there was a swarm of forty-two 
Arab boys learning to beat the drum. The noise was confu- 
sion confused. Winding up, and passing through the fortress 
gate, we rode up in front of the new mosque, now being fin- 
ished, the best-made building, on the best site, in Cairo, — 
overlooking everything, south, west, and a point or two north, 
for twenty miles. The front, minarets and columns, are built 
of alabaster, a stone that looks beautifully when first exposed to 
the air; but it soon changes, as the mosque has, — looking like 
a cake of tallow. It is already ruinous in appearance. The 
gilding, blue frosting of the dome within, and Arabic extracts 
from the Koran, have a fine efiect. Having somewhere 
described the manner in which Mohammed Ali's remains were 
boxed up in a corner, waiting for sepulture, when the edifice for 
which he provided funds is completed, it is only necessary to 
speak of the few changes six weeks had brought about, since I 
stood in the same position, contemplating the departed glories 
of his reiorn. Standinof on the* wall, a little to the south of the 
mosque enclosure, we were shown where the massacre of the 
beys occurred. Looking ofi'a little further on the plain, a large 
body of cavalry were practising broad-sword exercises in this 
manner, namely : On the top of a post was a tarbousch, — a red 
felt cap. All the horsemen were paraded on a line, and one 
would start his horse to a full run towards the post, and, in the 
act of turning, give the cap a slash, as though it were an infi- 



228 A PILGRIMAGE TO EGYPT. 

del's head. Not one in a dozen could hit it. The horses evi- 
dently enjoyed the sport quite as much as their riders, for they 
seemed impatient for their turn. Close by the mosque a pretty 
house, of wood and brick, is building, by Abbas Pasha, whose 
passion for palaces has no limits. Whatever is constructed by 
the modern occupants of Egypt is frail, without the elements 
of durability. They are for a day; but the old Egyptians 
built for eternity. Coming down into the square in front of the 
citadel, — a place I very frequently visited, — it was a perpet- 
ual source of amusement to witness the feats of legerdemain. 
The performers were extremely clever ; and some of their feats, 
in open day, on the bare sand, surrounded by a circle of look- 
ers-on, would puzzle a philosopher. Blitz would find his match 
with these expert fellows. A cup, or tambourine, is passed 
round, into which a few paras are thrown. 

Abbas Pasha's business-palace is near by the citadel. His 
grandfather's palace — a comfortable house, shaded by acacias 
— has been the scene of unrecorded proceedings, that would 
make one's hair rise, were a ninety-ninth part revealed. Adja- 
cent is the mint, which was accessible ; but we happened to 
arrive a little too late, on two occasions, for admission. 

All Cairo was in a transition state, preparing for a grand 
illumination in honor of the pasha's mother, who was daily 
expected, on her return from a pilgrimage to Mecca. This 
looks like having a soul of her own, if no other woman has. 
Lanterns — paper, of course — were thrown across the streets; 
mosques had wooden krinkum-krankums, — perhaps Arabic 
letters, — with wire hooks for holding oil-pots. 

Green garden vegetables, of various kinds, were on sale 
everywhere. The fruits from the Fyoom — an oasis in the 
Libyan Desert — were excellent. 

We landed in Egypt on the first day of November; and, 



A SUBSTITUTE CONSUL. 229 

since returning safely to Cairo, — having examined in detail 
all that is worthy of exploration, and seen and heard a multi- 
tude of things that cannot be written, — it is a gratification to 
look back upon our many adventures. My antiquarian taste 
was satisfactorily gratified ; for we saw all the temples, tombs, 
grottos, sculptured monuments and historical localities, great 
and small, from Cleopatra's Needle, Pompey's Pillar, the 
Sphinx before the Pyramids of Geezeh, the Memnonium on the 
abandoned plain of Thebes, the colossal pillars of Karnak and 
Luxor, and the paintings in the sepulchral chambers of Beni 
Hassan, to the royal cartouches on the colonnades of Philse. 
Instead of being contented and satisfied, my appetite was only 
sharpened for new researches in another direction. From my 
earliest recollection, when a child, standing by my mother's 
knee while she read to me of the magnificence of Solomon's 
temple, the holiness of Jerusalem, — of Bethlehem, Nazareth, 
the Garden of Gethsemane, the sufferings of our Lord and 
Saviour, and his triumphant victory over death, — I have had 
an irresistible desire to visit the Holy Land. 

After running back and forward to the office of the United 
States vice-consulate, — which was imder the care and admin- 
istration of a sycophantic, insincere, ignorant young Syrian, 
while the vice-consul was on a visit to Daraietta, — a contract 
was finally concluded with three sheiks, conjointly, for six 
camels and two drivers, to convey Mr. Warren and myself, 
water-casks, tent, bag and baggage, to Ramlah, the first town 
in Palestine. We felt no kind of confidence in the cringing, 
money-loving rascal, who was representing the official dignity 
of our country. In his face, deportment and postures, he looked 
the Turk, and proved to be a villain. We called on the Brit- 
ish consul, to ascertain whether our business could not be trans- 
acted by him, instead of this ignorant, dishonest, smoking mule 
20 



230 A PILGRIMAGE TO EGYPT. 

of a boy. The clerk said it might lead to unpleasant feelings 
between the consuls, if our papers were executed there ; and he 
thought, on the whole, we had better do the best we could at 
the American Eagle. All the while, these desert contracts, 
and Nile expeditions, do not fall within the jurisdiction of a 
consul at all ; it is a branch of business they have incorporated 
with the legitimate business of the consulate, to enlarge their 
income. I warn those who may follow me to keep away from 
the office. Go to any other consul, rather than the American, 
till it is in clean hands; or to any of the English bankers, who 
are abundantly competent to write a contract, and for less than 
half the cost of the same unreadable instrument at the consu- 
late. Having paid the demands, we asked distinctly if any other 
paper or papers were necessary. The answer was, no. And 
upon asking if a vise was not necessary to pass the frontier, we 
were again answered no. And this terminated the interview. 

Wherever I turned, the note of preparation was heard, to 
welcome back the mother of the pasha. She is regarded as a 
fortunate woman to have been the mother of a viceroy, — by 
which she enjoys privileges superior to all other females in 
Egypt; and she has a further chance of being buried in a 
mosque, and becoming a Moslem saint, if females ever enjoy 
that distinction. 

In the course of inquiries into the sanitary condition of Cairo, 
while we were up the river, to my surprise it was ascertained 
that a monthly bulletin was issued, — through the influence, 
doubtless, of some European, — giving the births and deaths 
of each month. As much confidence cannot be placed in it 
as in a document emanating from the government of France 
or England ; yet it is, perhaps, a near approximation to truth. 

From the 1st to the 10th of September, there died 56 males, 
71 females, and 126 infants ; total, 253. From the 11th to the 



ANCIENT MEMPHIS. 231 

20th, 88 males, 83 females, 116 infants ; total, 287. From the 
21st to the 30th, 59 males, 65 females, and 100 infants ; total, 
224. From the 11th to the 20th of October, 80 males, 87 
females, and 121 infants; total, 331. The births, all the while, 
show a slow increase of population. Marriages are not regis- 
tered, nor the divorces published ; if they were, it would aston- 
ish the Christian world. The population is estimated at two 
hundred thousand. The females, beyond all question, both in 
Cairo and throughout all Egypt, far exceed the males in num- 
bers. It is believed by some that the exact population is 
known, as well as the exact resources of each pashalic ; but 
policy requires all such information should be kept a profound 
secret ; therefore a census is never taken. 

While Hassan was making purchases, — buying a water- 
skin, two casks for holding water, and the little stores were 
gradually collecting, — an excursion was made to the site of 
Memphis, the great city, renowned for its stores of learning, 
where Plato studied three years, under the tuition of the wise 
priests. There is one single shanty — occupied by a slender, 
hawk-eyed Arab and family — where the very wonders of 
architecture formerly stood. Possibly this hut is not within 
the boundaries of ancient Memphis ; and, if so, then there is 
not a solitary mud hovel or human habitation — no, not one — 
where sages, philosophers and metaphysicians, expounded doc- 
trines that are still rolling their waves onward to all lands and 
to all nations. Plato and his successors have sometimes given, 
as their own, what they acquired in the palm-groves of Egypt ; 
and had the Alexandrian library been spared the flames, we 
should have known more of the intellectuality, psychological 
pursuits, and historical discoveries, of those old priests, whose 
swathed carcasses are hauled out of the mummy-pits, every day 
in the year, by Ishmaelites, of whom it was prophesied that 



232 A PILGRIMAGE TO EGYPT. 

their hands should be against every man, and every man's hand 
against them. 

Among other memorable doings, we visited the island of 
Khoda, ransacked the pasha's garden, tasted some of the man- 
darin oranges, examined those singular exotic trees, — the 
banyans, — which propagate and extend themselves indefi- 
nitely by dropping roots from the under side of the limbs, which, 
on catching the soil, send up a shaft for another tree, and thus 
progressively, till some barrier prevents a further development. 

Next, we went to the palace of Shoobra, — a princely estab- 
lishment, that must have originated in a French head, — 
created by Mohammed All's money. In all Europe there is not 
a fountain that surpasses the fairy representations of dolphins, 
crocodiles, &c., in marble, in and about a vast marble basin, 
at Shoobra, — large enough for a row-boat. A splendid pavil- 
ion, with gorgeously-furnished apartments in two corners, must 
have fully realized the magic descriptions of the Arabian Nights, 
when first completed, at the time the regenerator of Egypt 
was in the sunshine of political glory. An assembly of beau- 
tiful females bathed, frolicked, sang, played music, and lounged 
away life on silken divans, in this magnificent appendage of 
the royal harem. They were all purchased slaves, or the gifts 
of dependent officers to the pasha; and he the only spectator, — 
in short, the only man they ever saw. One of his favorite 
amusements is represented to have been to see a skiff-load of 
these Circassian beauties suddenly capsized into the water, 
while he sat smoking in state, enjoying the confusion that fol- 
lowed the apparent but not dangerous accident. 

The apparatus for supplying water is out of order. The 

marble is dry. Some of the drapery has been removed. One 

of the buildings — the harem itself, if I remember rightly — ■ 

, has been taken down ; and anybody, having the appearance of 



ARAB JUGGLERY. 233 

a gentleman, may see the whole, walk through the orangery, 
and fill his pockets besides, by simply getting a permit to enter, 
through a banker, and feeing the hungry attendants with back- 
shiesh on leaving the gate. 

Keturning, I witnessed some surprising feats of legerdemain, 
by the side of the street, near the moristan, or house for the 
insane. Among other unexplained, incomprehensible acts, was 
this. A wooden mortar, such as may be seen in poor families 
for pounding coffee, was placed on the ground, in the centre 
of a large circle of spectators. One of the com.pany was asked 
to take it up, examine it thoroughly, and pass it round. When 
all were satisfied that it was a simple mortar, without drawers 
or secret apartments, it was replaced, and the juggler, reaching 
over, with bare arms, deposited a snake, about twenty inches 
long, tail first, in it. It required a little time to force its body 
down in. When he let go, the reptile's head hung over the 
edge, darting out its forked tongue with extreme rapidity. 
AVhile every eye was intently fixed to that one point, and the 
exhibiter stood back with his patrons, the word was given to 
disappear, and, presto ! the serpent disappeared ! The mortar 
was again inspected, but its contents could not be found. This 
was an extraordinary aflfair ; and, to this moment, remains a 
perplexing problem. What became of the snake ? 

Near the same spot, and, perhaps, in a dozen other parts of 
the city, a miniature exhibition is occasionally to be met with, 
exceeding all scenes of grossness and vulgarity that could be 
devised. An Arab sits down on the ground, having two iron 
spikes driven, not far from ten feet apart, a string being 
stretched between them. At one end is a rade rag figure, — to 
represent an African, for example, — and at the other a female. 
The pith of the show consists in touching the cord, so as to 
give motion to the puppets. I have seen a hundred or two of 
20^ 



234 A PILGRIMAGE TO EGYPT. 

men, women and children, round one of these debasing and 
scandalously demoralizing sights, delighted beyond measure; 
which shows the exceedingly depraved state of the public mind, 
and the still lower order of morals. It surprised me that offi- 
cers and gentlemen who were passing along did not frown upon 
it, or that some show of regard for the respectability of the 
government of the city did not lead to an interdiction of such 
a reprehensible show and abominable corruption of the public 
manners. 

Dec. 26th. — Our visits to Sakkara, to Memphis, and the 
great Necropolis, were of a character not to be forgotten ; and, 
while everything is clear, and distinctly remembered, it is 
thought appropriate to write my observations at those memora- 
ble places. 

By leaving Cairo before daylight, having engaged donkeys 
the night before, Mr. Holland and myself arrived at the ferry, 
four miles up stream, at Old Cairo, just after sunrise. We 
crossed over readily, but had some slight delay in landing on 
the Geezeh side. As one of the asses positively refused to 
leap out, one of the boatmen lifted him over the side, splash 
into the water, — the first incident of the day. 

Every one who has surveyed the ground gives his impres- 
sions ; but I shall distinguish my diary by stating the facts 
only, in regard to Sakkara, leaving all great conjectures about 
the probable sites of shrines, temples, statues and sphinxes, to 
other travellers. 

Sakkara is a sand-plain, very near the border of the Libyan 
desert, on which there are several large pyramids, quite sur- 
prising enough, if there were no others on a more magnificent 
scale of magnitude, to have been objects of intense interest to 
all men. As it is, they are scarcely noticed ; yet they are 
constructed of courses of hewn stone, and one is called the grand, 



PYRAMIDS OF SAKKARA. 235 

because it overtops the others. The group is nine miles up the 
river from the pyramids of Geezeh. The blocks of which they 
are constructed, being of a loose texture, — a soft, magnesian 
limestone, — are slowly but surely decomposing. A ridge of 
ashes-like powder lies on the projecting course of the one 
below, and so on, from the top to the base. A heavy gale of 
wind might blow it away, and another collection would follow. 
The foundations of two pyramids are observed, with only two 
or three layers of stone remaining, all above having decom- 
posed, and probably blown off. By running a cane into the 
pile, the shape of the stones could be exposed to view. Thus 
a thousand years more, without the agency of man, will suffice 
to obliterate the last remains of the pyramids of Sakkara. It 
pre-supposes about as many ages as the world is supposed to 
have been formed, for such vast accumulations of stone to turn 
into an impalpable powder, which could be borne away by the 
restless winds of heaven. Saklcara appears originally to have 
been a plain ; but when that was, no chronologer can decide. 
it is on a terrace of considerable elevation above the Nile, and 
occupied exclusively for a burial-field, — perhaps a mile and a 
half long by half a mile in width. Dr. Abbott, of Cairo, whose 
authority may be frequently appealed to, said he had no doubt 
the necropolis might have extended all of fifteen miles. In 
about the probable centre were the pyramids, sepulchres them- 
selves, for the safe-keeping of privileged beings, while the infe- 
riors, of all orders, were buried about them. The mode of 
burial was this : pits were dug, to the depth of fifty, sixty and 
eighty or more feet, and walled with hewn stone, laid in water- 
cement, — where there were seams and fractures, — so that 
they might be perfectly tight and dry. The opening at the top 
was commanded by a stone, admirably fitted. Bodies were 
rnummefied, and then deposited, stratum super stratum, till the 



236 A PILGEIMAGE TO EGYPT. 

pit was full, when the cover was hermetically sealed. By the 
side of it another was made, and another, far beyond the abil- 
ity of any one to determine how far or how numerous they are. 
Probably this began to be neglected when Memphis was waning 
in prosperity. Sand drifted over the horizontal slabs indicat- 
ing the pits, which was not kept at bay by the attentions of the 
people, as formerly ; and its accumulation ultimately covered 
all the monuments, and concealed whatever edifices may have 
stood there, to the depth of ten, twenty, thirty and fifty feet, 
according to the character of the surface, — being evidently much 
deeper in some places than in others. Arabs — fierce, wild, 
haggard in their expression, nearly naked, with children grow- 
ing up into the same form and appearance — prowl over this 
great city of the dead perpetually; for there are but few 
storms to interrupt their depredations, and their express 
business is to penetrate down through the dry sand, to strike 
the cover of a pit, which they rarely miss. Experience has 
taught them how to proceed to the best advantage. All hands 
commence by scooping up the sand with small dishes, broken 
pots, leaky baskets, and even bags ; but, being dry, it rolls back 
about as rapidly as it is moved from the centre. The diameter 
of a shaft that reaches down thirty feet may require to be one 
hundred and fifty feet. It is a complete cone, with the apex 
inverted. The cover is raised with despatch, exposing the first 
tier of mummies, which are dragged out and carried up, and 
forthwith broken up and barbarously pulled to pieces. The 
hands are searched for finger-rings and bracelets ; the ears and 
nose, for jewelry ; the neck, for chains, &c. ; and then shoes, 
sandals, net-caps, pieces of cotton cloth, and whatever else may 
be considered of a farthing's value, are stripped off, to be sold 
to travellers. Sometimes they strike on a sarcophagus that 
indicates the body of some one of more consequence than the 



PYRASnDS OF SAKKARA. 237 

• 

ordinary run of vulgar dead, which becomes an object of 
extraordinary examination. If it were the body of Psammeti- 
cus, or of Cheops himself, its destruction would be the more 
certain, in hope of gain. An inferior, common mummy is put 
into the fine case, and fastened as before. They then palm it 
off as an unopened sarcophagus, in which there may be a sec- 
retary of state to a Pharaoh, or the daughter of the high priest 
of the household. These impositions lead to ridiculous expect- 
ations with purchasers from Europe, and not unfrequently 
throw discredit on the old embalmers. Sakkara, therefore, 
from the quantities of human bones, in all directions, is a per- 
fect Golgotha. 

In one particular spot of that vast cemetery are pits in which 
are found vases filled with eggs ; and not far from that spot 
are some extensive excavations, filled with the mummied ibis, 
in coarse earthen jars, piled up on each side the tunnel-like 
excavation. In other parts are found the bones and mummies 
of oxen ; in other places, those of sheep ; in others, those of 
dogs, of cats, of monkeys, &c. &c. 

A new interest is felt in them, when it is recollected that 
every one may have been buried a thousand years before Moses 
wrote the history of the creation. A phrenological cabinet, of 
the very rarest specimens, might be readily collected within 
the space of a few rods square, and none be missed. The head 
of a young female, bearing a rich covering of chestnut-colored 
hair, in full ringlets, just torn from the body, was offered for a 
trifle. I picked up several of children. All the adult male 
skulls were strongly marked, with bold bumps of constPactive- 
ness and veneration, but deficient in firmness. They could 
heap up stone pyramids, but had not inde^^endence to rebel 
against oppressive monarchs or exactinx^ priests. Some of the 
knit caps taken from the heads o^ the females were precisely 



238 A PILGRIMAGE TO EGYPT. 

like those I once saw upon the head of a female Peruvian 
mummy, brought to Boston by Mr. Blake, of that city. Cer- 
tainly, the cloth bandages were well woven, the threads evenly 
spun ; and why its fabric was not as good as those of modern 
manufacture remains to be shown. 

Wild animals, particularly jackals, come down in the night, 
and gnaw these marrowless bones ; but the taste and odor of 
the bitumen protects them from their destructive teeth. I 
took up lumps of the composition that came out of the cavities 
of the chest or abdomen, strongly resembling asphaltum. Many 
curious antiques — as miniature porcelain mummies, copper 
and bronze figures, bronze beetles, hooks, and articles for which 
no use can be assigned — are constantly being found ; but no 
one pretends to hazard the mention of the epoch to which they 
belong. At Pompeii and Herculaneum the workmen brought 
to light things that had resisted the earth's pressure and the 
elements for seventeen centuries ; but they were trifles of 
to-day, in comparison with the memorials of the ancient Egyp- 
tians, which may have been in the mummy-pits many centuries 
before Menes, the first king, began to reign. Specimens of 
sculpture are buried on this plain, beyond a question, of 
immense value in illustration of the state of the arts at an 
early age of the world. Two sphinxes, the size of full-grown 
lions, beautifully executed, having very mild, sweet expressions, 
were lately drawn out of a deep hole. In all the sculptures of 
Egypt, thus far examined, nothing has come up to these, in 
Doint of facial comeliness. An impression is indulged that the 
Arabs have struck upon an avenue of sphinxes, which lead to 
a buried tt?.^?!®? i^ front of the largest pyramid. That they 
were from the ciri^^l ^f a master, is certain; and taken at a 
depth of at least thirty-five feet below the sand, which was the 
primitive level, and on the ^^^^ P^^^^ with the base of the 



SITE OP ANCIENT MEMPHIS. 239 

pyramid, and not far from three hundred feet west of it. I 
should have rejoiced to have purchased them for the Boston 
Athenaeum, but was informed that the pasha had presented 
them to Baron Rothschild. The faces are superior to the 
sculptures from Nineveh, which I have studied with no ordi- 
nary feelings of gratification. If the immense body of sand 
could be removed from Sakkara to the terrace lower down, the 
revelations would astonish the civilized world. I entertain the 
opinion that such a day will come ; and much that is mysteri- 
ous in respect to the written and sculptured history of the first 
ages of the human family, or that branch of it which has left 
enduring monuments in the valley of the Nile, may hereafter 
be read understandingly. 

Memphis — now Metrihenny — is recognized by high mounds, 
covered partially by palm-groves, and an occasional block of red 
granite, a piece of polished marble, and other evidences that 
civilization made its mark there. Soon after our visit, it was 
heralded that a French savan had discovered the true location 
of Memphis ; but no reliance can be placed on the story. The 
mounds are the best guides; and the whole tenor of history 
and tradition points to near Sakkara. But there is one strong, 
and, to me, conclusive reason for believing that Metrihenny 
was the veritable site of Memphis ; namely, a statue of Rameses 
II., a renowned king, which must have stood near where it was 
discovered, because it is too massive to have been removed. 
Originally, it is estimated to have been on a pedestal sixty feet 
high. The portion of it remaining may be thirty feet long, 
lying on its face in a mud-hole, six feet below the land-level, — 
showing all that depth to have accumulated since the statue 
was overturned. The left arm — from the shut fingers to the 
shoulder — was thought to be twelve feet. It must have been 
near some very distinguished edifice. 



240 A PILGRIMAGE TO EGYPT. 

Here, too, is room for an antiquarian to build himself a 
name, and secure a niche in the temple of fame. 

On our return, we passed a gay Arab wedding, — a veiled 
bride, going to the hovel, perhaps, of a husband whom she 
never saw, on a led horse, followed by a group of envious 
females, singing merrily, as they kept up with the happy crea- 
ture ahead. The husband — a firm, thick-set, staring fellow 
of forty — was considerably in advance, on horseback, with a 
rabble of people footing it by his side. He may have had three 
wives already, for four is a legal number, — a privilege which 
country village Arabs, to my certain knowledge, avail them- 
selves of. However poor, it does not deter them from copying 
the example of their superiors, who, if they do not avail them- 
selves of as many wives as they might, maintain an establish- 
ment of female servants, whom they can manage more easily, 
and dispose of without trouble, and with less delay, than a 
legal wife could be put fairly aside, should she have children, 
and especially sons. 

This novel cavalcade had but just passed out of sight when 
a painful contrast was presented ; for we overtook a party of 
prisoners, on foot, barefooted, and all tied together with strong 
cords, securely guarded by foot and horse soldiers, on their 
way to Cairo to be flogged for not paying their taxes. Some 
of them were gray-bearded men, — gray heads being never 
seen, as their pates are regularly shaven, — with several quite 
young fellahs, whose beards had not grown. They were hur- 
ried along through the dust, in a scorching sun, with less 
humanity than would be shown to cattle, even among them- 
selves. Here poverty is a crime ; and poor, wretched, bare- 
legged people, whose whole lives are a protracted scene of 
political degradation, — who know nothing and have nothing, 
— are cruelly punished for not meeting promptly the arbitrary 



THE FLOGGING SYSTEM. 241 

demands of a despotic ruler. After suffering very severely, 
sometimes the relations contrive to liberate a delinquent ; and 
there have been instances where the fellah has suffered excruci- 
atingly, rather than relinquish his money, which he might 
have done without losing his all. This shows that there is no 
national feeling, no respect for government, no confidence that 
their rights or property will be protected. A case is related of 
a man who was punished several times, and once to the extent 
of a hundred lashes, — having, all along, declared his inability 
to pay the tax. On rising, at the termination of a repetition 
of the hellish policy of the law, — which is nothing more nor 
less than the uncontrolled will of the pasha, — a small gold 
coin dropped from his mouth, where it had been studiously con- 
cealed, and for the sake of retaining which he had been beaten 
almost to jelly! It was instantly snatched up, and the right- 
eousness or expediency — I hardly know which — of the sys- 
tem applauded ; and then he was re-punished for the deception. 
Under all this, he told his wife, with a chuckle, that they did 
not get it till they were obliged to flog him so many times ; as 
though it were a praiseworthy and meritorious act of bravery 
to have undergone the pains of the damned rather than part 
with a bit of gold ! My sympathies were so much excited in 
behalf of these wretched beings, — dragged from their mud 
hovels, where there never was a comfort, or a rational social 
feeling towards each other, or a sustaining religious hope that 
they could comprehend, to a city which they were never per- 
mitted to visit till marched into it, in fetters and manacles, to 
be brutalized by the bastinado for not rendering up what they 
never had, — that it threw a gloom over the remainder of the 
jaunt ; and I was thankful for a new excitement, to divert my 
mind from the contemplation of a train of painful thoughts. 
Dec. 21th. Friday. — Preparations were going on for the 
21 



242 A PILGRIMAGE TO EGYPT. 

voyage through the desert, — a room in our lodging-house 
resembling a grocery-shop. We are to travel on camels, and 
not by railroads. This will explain the necessity of making 
such a mountain out of a mole-hill. We are going over a 
desolate waste of barren sand, where there are no houses, no 
trees, no security but our own powers of resistance, and the 
overawing influence of Mohammed All's name,, to keep the 
Bedouin Arabs from robbing and murdering all who venture 
upon that broad theatre of their exploits. They were sole and 
unconditional masters between Egypt and Palestine, till the 
old warrior outwitted the whole, by drawing them into bodies, 
where they were butchered thoroughly enough to convince 
them that it was good policy not to molest travellers. It is fear 
of a repetition of his measures that still keeps them in check. 
They roam over those frightful regions with an elasticity and 
freedom of motion that shows they acknowledge no allegiance 
to God, man, or the devil. They are a cut-throat looking race. 
Dr. Abbott, with whom we dined, — referred to at page 74, 
— has resided in Cairo many years. In his person he is short 
and thick-set, and dresses in the costume of a Turkish gentle- 
man. He married an Armenian lady, who has never acquired 
the English language; nor has he a child able to speak it. 
He is, therefore, compelled to conform to them, and speaks 
Arabic fluently. His household is conducted on the native 
principles, and in conformity to the etiquette of Cairo society 
we were entertained. This gentleman has been eighteen years 
in collecting an exceedingly interesting museum of ancient 
Egyptian curiosities, illustrative of the manners, customs, arts 
and sciences, in the Nilotic valley, in the early ages of the 
world. I have not only inspected some of the most precious 
articles in detail, but I have also been at the localities where 
they were found, and can bear testimony to their genuineness 



DR, Abbott's collection. 



243 



and rarity, and the value they possess. It is the intention 
of the proprietor to transport the whole of his cabinet to the 
United States, for exhibition in the principal cities. The col- 
lection is calculated to make a sensation whenever it arrives. 
The sacred bull. Apis, swathed and mummefied, with wide- 
spread, gilded horns, — requiring seven stout men to lift, — he 
said he had already sent, by the way of Suez, to New York. 
There is a prohibition against the export of any antiquities 
from the country without the leave of the pasha. Fearing a 
denial in that quarter, Dr. Abbott thought the only chance of 
not being intercepted was to send the bull by a route which 
would never be suspected as a way to America. 




SACKED BULL MXJMMT. 



This unique collection may safely be said to be unrivalled for 
antiquity. Many of the curiosities carry the mind back to a 
primeval condition of society. Some statuettes give an idea of 
the postures, if not the pursuits, of certain classes of people. I 
subjoin a number of examples. 

No. 3, in his catalogue, is a limestone statue of a Hierogram- 
matist, sitting, and exhibiting a volume on his knees. This 




244 A PILGRIMAGE TO EGYPT. 

statue is in good preservation, and is remarkable for the instru- 
ment which is hung over its left shoulder, represent- 
ing a bag, or basket, which the scribes carried with 
them ; and hence used, in the inscriptions, as the 
symbolic hieroglyphic of that office, and of the art 
. of writing. 

No. 9 is a group of figures about two feet high, in fine lime- 
stone, from the quarries of Toura. It represents a man in an 
ancient dress and position, the left leg slightly advanced, and 
his son sustaining his right knee ; while his daughter, more 
advanced in years, and in a kneeling position, sustains his left. 
This group still preserves much of its ancient color. Such 
groups are common, in basso relievo, on the walls of the more 
ancient tombs. It is from the same tomb in Sakkara. 

No. 23 is a fragment, in red granite, of the left foot of a 
statue of the Great Rameses. It is of colossal proportions. 
From Thebes. 

28. Fragment of the statue of an Egyptian lady sitting on a 
stool. In the line of hieroglyphics down the front of her dress 
will probably be found the names of her parents. This frag- 
ment is of elegant design ; and, from the style, about the time 
of Rameses. From Sakkara. 

48. The wheel, tire, and shafts of a chariot, found in a tomb 
near the Pyramids of Dashoor. The wheel has but six spokes, 
like those chariots represented in the paintings and sculptures : 
these, however, appear to be somewhat differently constructed, 
for they seem to have been strengthened by an inner circle. 

62. Model of a house, in which are various domestic and 
agricultural implements, similar to those in use at the present 
day in the villages of Upper Egypt. From Thebes. 

6. Cylindrical toilet-box, of hard wood, engraved in outline, 
filled with some white composition. It represents women in 



DR. Abbott's collection. 245 

the approved positions of Egyptian dance, playing on various 
instruments. Bouquets of flowers are strewed upon the floor; 
and one of the women, as if to gratify all the senses at once, 
pours into the cup of the person seated, before whom the others 
are dancing and singing, some grateful beverage. A line of 
hieroglyphics encircles the upper part, and the usual ornament 
of the base of an apartment decorates the lower part of the box. 
This curious piece of antiquity was found in Sakkara ; but, 
both in composition and style, it resembles the best designs 
painted on the walls of the tombs at Thebes, 

34. Lady's dress-comb, the upper part representing the body 
of a lobster. From Sakkara. 

38. Basket, similar to those manufactured in Nubia at the 
present day, containing the following articles : — Two needles 
of bronze, two skeins of thread, a bronze spatula, a wooden 
comb, two alabaster studs, and two colored- porcelain balls. 
From Sakkara. 

42. Small figure, in hard brown wood, representing one of 
the Asiatic tribes, prostrate. It probably formed part of a 
group, representing the king trampling under foot the enemies 
of Egypt. From Sakkara. 

72. Lion's head, in wood, of excellent workmanship, which 
formed part of an elegant chair, similar to those represented in 
the Beban-el-Molook. In one eye is still the remains of the 
gold orb and blue enamel of the lid. From Sakkara. 

81. Curved stick, such as is seen in the hand of the hunter 
in the representations of this ancient employment, in the 
older tombs. It was used for throwing at birds ; and, by 
its form, very probably partook of the property of the beau- 
merang of the New Hollanders, or the trombash, still in 
use in the interior of Africa. This sample is inscribed, 
and bears a cartouche compounded of the word amun, and 
21^ 



246 A PILGRIMAGE TO EGYPT. 

Other characters, terminating in the O feminine article. The 
cartouche is preceded by the title " Royal Daughter." Perhaps 
this instrument was used, also, by the ladies of those heroic 
times, who, in the representations above quoted, are frequently 
seen accompanying their fathers or husbands in a small boat, 
made of the papyrus, in which, it appears, the ancient Egyp- 
tians navigated the canals, or smaller branches of the parent 
stream, — which, in those days, particularly in the Delta, 
abounded in the papyrus plant, — in quest of birds and hip- 
popotami. There is a bronze nail at the top of the handle. 
This remarkable instrument was found in a tomb at Thebes. 

82. Fragment of a walking-stick, on which there is engraved 
a line of hieroglyphics, preceded by a man in the act of adorn- 
ing the Theban Triad; probably in allusion to the office of the 
possessor, whose name and titles are contained in the inscrip- 
tion. This stfck is ornamented with an ivory top. From 
Thebes. 

83. Fragment of another stick, with an inscription. The 
heads of the tribes of Israel had their names inscribed on their 
staffs (Numb. 17 : 2) ; and it would appear that the heads of 
families, in ancient Egypt, also practised this custom ; for the 
chief person, in the representations on the walls of the ancient 
tombs, has always a staff. All these sticks are much longer 
than the modern walking-stick. From Thebes. 

104. Net, containing the fruit of a species of the palm, now 
nowhere to be found in the valley of the Nile, but which grows 
abundantly in some of the valleys of the Bishareen desert, 
between Korosko and Aboo-Hamed. From Thebes. 

112, Fragment of a breast-plate, made of pieces of iron in 
the form of scales, one of which takes the shape of a cartouche, 
and has stamped thereon the name of the Egyptian king Shi- 
shak, who invaded Jerusalem B. C. 971. 



DR. Abbott's collection. 



247 



383. A row of wooden dolls. From Thebes. 

Shelf, with terra-cotta lamps, of which the most worthy is 
a glazed porcelain lamp, found in the great pyramid of Geezeh. 

129. A statue of Thoth, the most exquisite work of art in 
the collection. This beautiful little statue is only two inches 
and a quarter high, is made of fine limestone, but has the 
appearance of polished ivory. It is in perfect preservation, and 
of the most ancient style of sculpture. From Memphis. 

168. Statue of Isis and Horus, in white marble. The god- 
dess has a bronze head-dress, and a bronze hawk stands behind 
her throne, which it embraces with the expanded wings : these 
were formerly beautifully inlaid with enamel, or other vitreous 
substance. The plinth of this curious specimen is of bronze, 
and there is an inscription down the back of the goddess. 
From Sakkara. 

201. One limb of a pair of scissors, fantastically terminating 
in the figure of a prisoner. It is in bronze. Also a pin, nail, 
and other instruments, in the same metal. From Sakkara. 

Prenomen of the father of Sesostris, in porcelain. The oval, 
which encircles the name, represents a double rope. The 




whole is a good example of the style of hieroglyphics of his 
From Sakkara. 



tomb and age. 



248 A PlLGillMAGE TO EGYPT. 

43. Large ear-ring, terminating in a bull's head : it is of 
similar construction with the above, being made of gold wire, 
minutely decorated. The eyes have been inserted, and it has 
been formerly ornamented with precious stones in the horns 
and forehead. From Upper Egypt. 

49. Beautiful little figure, in gold, of a bird with a human 
head. The wings are expanded. This figure represents the 
soul departing from the body, and resembles one in the museum 
of the Vatican, found in Etruria. It and Fig. 91 were taken, by 
Mr. Abbott, from the breast of the mummy of a priestess, which 
was discovered at Sakkara. 

31. A pair of gold ear-rings, hollow, and minutely orna- 
mented ; one end terminating in a tiger's head, holding an 
engraved stone, and the smaller end in a hook, which fastens 
into the gold setting of the stone. From Upper Egypt. 

107. A piece of bread, such as is found in tombs, deposited 
with the dead in Egypt; from which circumstance the Greek 
story of appeasing the voracity of the triple-headed guardian 
of the entrance to the dominions of Pluto is probably derived. 
From Thebes. 

108-9. Three flint knives, used in making the incision into 
the cavity of the abdomen, in the process of embalming, — a 
rn^tal instrument not being considered lawful. From Sakkara. 

10. Toilet-stand, for containing the black pigment, called 
kohol, for blackening the margin of the eyelids ; a custom now, 
as in the days of Jezebel, prevalent in the east. From Sakkara. 

55. A small tablet, representing an Egyptian lady, in the 
attitude of prayer, m.aking an offering to Phre, who is in the 
position and habit of Amun, of whom, also, he has the azure 
complexion. From Thebes. 

I have taken the liberty of introducing these particulars for 
the purpose of showing what skill the ancient Egyptians 



DR. Abbott's collection. 249 

possessed in the arts, and particularly in the manufacture of 
jewelry. Abundant specimens of glass — colored, plain and 
figured — indicate their familiarity with that branch of indus- 
try. It has been suggested, from some singular circular pieces, 
bearing certain figures, that glass, in that form, might have 
been the circulating medium. 

They made curious devices in ivory, bronze, wood and stone, 
thousands of which have been found and lost again, in the 
phases Egypt has been passing through in the last three thou- 
sand years ; but, if civilization triumphs there, and life and 
property are protected, before many lustrums pass over our 
heads, new researches will be commenced, under better aus- 
pices than have heretofore characterized explorations among 
the mummy-pits and temples, and new and extraordinary 
developments may therefore be reasonably anticipated. 

Two miniature heads, to show the manner of dressing the 
hair, of great antiquity, are here introduced, in this cabinet; 
and also two female figures, which may as well pass for spoons 
as anything else. As mere domestic instruments, they indi- 
cate the imitative powers of somebody. No. 4 has a mild 
expression, and is decidedly a Caucasian face ; and so, also, is 
No. 1 ; but No. 3 has less character. 

1. Two ear-rings and necklace of gold, found in a jar at Dur- 
dera. These ornaments are made of gold leaf, similar to that 
upon which hieroglyphics are usually stamped. There are 
three pendants of lapis lazuli, and two beads of blue glass 




OTAL PLATE. 



attached to the centre, where is also an oval amethyst bead, 
capped at each end with gold. But, what is particularly curi- 



250 



A PILGRIMAGE TO EG¥PT. 



ous is, that the name of Menes is stamped upon the ear-rings, 
and upon eight oval plates of the necklace. These ovals have 
a dotted ornament around them, and are not of the same shape 
as the space enclosing royal names. The circle around the 
ear-rings is plain, and in form a cartouche. At equal distances 
between these ovals are curiously-entwined devices, attached 
by a rude chain, formed of thin strips of flattened gold. 

Having examined with care the necklace of Menes, I have 
no hesitation in saying it is a beautiful piece of gold working, 
that would be rich in these days of taste, and certainly a very 
costly ornament. 

But the crowning gem of Dr. Abbott's museum, which I have 
also seen, and had upon my own finger, and for which he was 
offered by an English nobleman two thousand dollars, — the 
genuineness of which is not called in question by profound 
Egyptian antiquarians, — is the signet-ring of Cheops, the 
builder of the largest of the pyramids at Geezeh. 

2. Signet-ring, bearing the name of Shoofoo, the Suphis 



Fig. 1. 



Mg. 3. 




(Cheops) of the Greeks. In shape and dimensions it resem- 
bles Figure 1, and the size of the impression exactly corre- 



DR. Abbott's collection. 253 

spends to Figure 2. Figure 3 is a magnified representation of 
the inscription engraved on it. This remarkable piece of 
antiquity is in the highest state of preservation, and is said to 
have been found at Geezeh, in a tomb near the excavation of 
Colonel Vise, called Campbell's tomb. It is of fine gold, and 
weighs nearly three sovereigns. The style of the hieroglyph- 
ics is in perfect accordance with those in the tombs about the 
great pyramid, and among the hierogl}^hics within the oval is 
the name of that Pharaoh of whom the pyramid was the tomb. 
Tile details are minutely accurate, and beautifully executed. 
The heaven is engraved with stars ; the fox, or jackal, has sig- 
nificant lines within its contour ; the hatchets have their han- 
dles bound with thongs, as is usual in the sculptures ; the 
volumes have the string which binds them hanging below the 
roll, difiering in this respect from any example in sculptured 
or painted hieroglyphics. The determinative for country is 
studded with dots, representing the sand of the mountains at 
the margin of the valley of Egypt. The instrument, as in the 
larger hierogl}"phics, has the tongue and semilunar mark of the 
sculptured examples ; as is the case also with the heart-shaped 
vase. The name is surmounted with the globe and feathers, 
decorated in the usual manner ; and the ring of the cartouche 
is engraved with marks representing a rope, — never seen in 
the sculptures ; and the only instance of a royal name simi- 
larly encircled is a porcelain example in this collection, en- 
closing the name of the father of Sesostris. The O in the 
name is placed as in the examples sculptured in the tombs, 
not in the axis of the cartouche. The chickens, or duck- 
lings, have their unfledged wings ; the Cerastes its horns, now 
only to be seen with the magnifying glass. These difierences 
are highly in favor of its genuineness ; for it is improbable that 
a fabricator would have ventured to have deviated from the 
22 



254 A PILGRIMAGE TO EGYPT. 

more known examples, even if he could have succeeded in coun- 
terfeiting the style of the period to which the name belongs. 

3. Ring, of fine gold, bearing a royal name, found in a 
wooden box at Thebes. 

4. A gold ring, with the figure of Isis, sitting. It is solid, 
of the shape called opisphendone. From Sakkara. 

5. Ring, of fine gold, with a figure of the lion-headed god- 
dess engraved in two cartouches, each surmounted with the 
two feathers, that are usual on royal names. From Sakkara. 

6. Scarabeeus, on a pivot of gold, forming a ring. It has 
the name of Tothmes III., — according to some, the Pharaoh 
of the Exodus. From Sakkara. 

7. Ring, of gold, in which are tastefully arranged two blue 
stones and one red one. From Thebes. 

8. Ring, of gold, with a pyramidal stone. From Sakkara. 

9. Ring, of gold, with a square plate. From Sakkara. 

10. Ring, with a cornelian scarabesus. From Sakkara. 

11. Ring, of silver, solid, and of the Greek form. It bears 
the name of Amunoph. From Sakkara. 

12. Square ring, of silver, with the name of Tothmes. From 
Sakkara. 

13. Silver ring, very thin. From Sakkara. 

Through Dr. Abbott, new and important medical facts were 
collected. He is a believer in the non-contagious character of 
the plague, and perfectly coincides, in that respect, with Clot 
Bey. He assured me that he visited plague-patients as he 
does all others, without any apprehensions of danger to him- 
self, and regardless of all precautions. Were it not that it is 
both impossible and indiscreet to write out all the speculations 
that are gathered in Egypt, in relation to its ancient history, 
and civil, political and sanitary condition, the theory might be 
discussed which declares that men and all the domestic animals 



OUTFIT FOR THE DESERT JOURNEY. 255 

were made into mummies to preserve the public health, — the 
plague being first developed, or re-developed, when the dead 
were put into the ground to decompose. There is something 
in this idea worth following out. The present inhabitants 
bury superficially, without coffins. All the burying-fields are 
immensely large, and they are very numerous. But that is not 
all ; vast accumulations of bodies are not unfrequently found in 
small yards, near the streets, which, in the hot climate of Cairo, 
must modify the atmosphere very considerably, by loading it 
with putrid animal exhalations. No poison is said to be so 
virulent and fatal as the putrescent matter of a human body, 
— the material with which the negroes of Africa charge their 
arrows for fatal execution against their enemies. 

Dec. 28th. Saturday. — Took our departure from Cairo 
about eleven o'clock this morning, with six camels, two being 
called dromedaries. We were accompanied by Hassan — a 
tall, strong, good-looking Arab, who would pass, in Christian 
clothes, for a European — and his African slave, Buckheat, 
who had charge of the animals ; and with these two — neither 
of whom could speak a word of English — we pushed out into 
the desert of Arabia. One camel was laden with two water- 
casks, of nearly the ordinary capacity of barrels ; another had a 
tent, and a wooden chest, secured by a padlock, containing hard 
bread, coffee, sugar, tin canisters of prepared meats, sardines, tin 
plates, tin cups, and such table furniture as would bend before 
it would break. This box is called a canteen. Then there was 
rice, and some chocolate, which had been presented to me by 
Mr. Baker, the great American manufacturer of that article, at 
Boston. There was also a bag of charcoal, and a goat-skin, 
taken off whole, filled with water, for the camel-drivers. 
Another camel was laden with beans and barley, for the ani- 
mals. Added to this, our personal baggage — twice as much as 



256 A PILGRIMAGE TO EGYPT. 

was necessary, with our mattresses, big, shaggy over-coats, with 
capotes, a box containing a dozen bottles of ale, besides little 
parcels and packages, belonging to the Arabs — making four 
stout loads. 

Two of the camels were for our personal service ; — gaunt, 
shabby-haired creatures, with long, serpentine necks, having 
saddles of the stiffest, ugliest, and most uncomfortable form, 
without stirrups, but with a high wooden pin, large as a man's 
wrist, standing bolt up in front and behind. By spreading the 
Constantinople coats two or three double, we could sit with 
tolerable comfort between the pins. The camels, tied one to 
the other, were led from the narrow lane, where they were 
laden, — all kneeling at once to receive their burdens, — out- 
side the gate, towards Shoobra. All three of the sheiks who 
were interested in the bargain, as specified in a contract, 
made their appearance, to take leave, but more especially to 
beg for backshiesh. A part of the contract had been paid 
down, and the remainder was to be handed over to Hassan, at 
the termination of the journey. Hassan, the Nile dragoman, 
also followed outside the city, to wish us well, and get a sop 
of backshiesh. 

We now mounted, took leave of all who honored us by a 
parting walk to the wall, and started for the sand-hills. Instead 
of striking off easterly, the sheik inclined north-easterly, which 
gave us a fine opportunity to see all the settlements, palm- 
groves and vegetation, on the borders of the sand. The walk 
of the camels, by a watch, was, upon an average, two miles 
and a half an hour, and no more. The motion was extremely 
unpleasant to a beginner, being a sudden jerk back and forward, 
without any variation. The rider must keep a bright look-out, 
not to be snapped in two, or get impaled on one of the saddle- 
pins. By four o'clock, p. m., we were brought to an apology 



ANCIENT HELIOPOLIS. 257 

for a town, called Houk. There was a narrow street, with a 
bazaar, where soft bread, pipes, coffee, dates, corn, oranges, 
&c., could be purchased. Hassan led the way into a sort of 
barn-yard, through a gate, from the street. Each side, on 
entering, had a raised stone platform, under a roof of poles, 
covered with straw and loose palm-boughs. That was our 
place of lodgment; our apparatus for cooking, beds, and other 
property, being piled up in a corner. The camels were tied in 
the yard, and fed on pounded dry straw, in which there may 
have been a quart of horse-beans for each. There we slept on 
mother earth, — the only place for travellers, and more securely 
than if encamped outside the town. Between the fleas and 
other vermin, which made an immediate attack, the night was 
one of warfare and bloodshed. Our ankles appeared to 
have the measles, and our bodies as though they had had 
a charge of hot shot. It gave us the best realization of the 
plagues of Egypt we had experienced. A voluntary or 
appointed guard — I know not which — made their appearance, 
and demanded backshiesh, for seeing us safely through the 
night. The service of keeping off these hungry fleas would 
have been paid more cheerfully. 

On the way from Cairo, we turned aside to find the site of 
the renowned Heliopolis, indicated by a place known as Mata- 
reeh. Hassan ran from one slight elevation to another, to 
descry the Needle, as he called a solitary red granite obelisk, 
of the reign of Orsirtasen I., who ascended the throne 1740 
years before Christ, and reigned forty-three years. According 
to Strabo, it was a magnificent city, with a temple of amazing 
splendor, approached through avenues of sphinxes, twenty feet 
apart ; several lofty propyla, and the sacred temple of the sun 
within, and the walls covered with colossal figures. But one 
solitary vestige remains, of the opulent and ancient abode of 
22^ 



258 A PILGRIMAGE TO EGYPT. 

an order of priests of whose knowledge little is known, save 
that their learning gave a character to Heliopolis, which in 
Scripture is called On. The obelisk is sixty-eight feet two 
inches high, from the pedestal. The ground has been raised, 
all round it, above the original level. One side is six feet one 
inch wide on the north-east, and six feet three inches, on the 
east and west. The mound where the city stood is recognized. 
There is a small hut near the obelisk, which is fenced into a 
garden, and a few paras are demanded for opening the gate. 
Not far from this is the tomb of the renowned Malek Adel, who 
began to reign in 686. Here the balm of Gilead was raised, 
on land owned by Cleopatra, the trees having been brought 
from Judea. At Heliopolis Moses is represented to have been 
educated in all the wisdom of the Egyptians. 

Bee. 29th. Sunday. — Put up last night at Tel Basta, whose 
high, irregular mound points out the site of another city, of 
remote antiquity, — Bubastis, the Pibeseth of the Bible; and, 
still further off in the mist of far remoter ages, the city of 
Pasht, the hunting goddess of Egypt. Like all the mounds 
I have scrutinized, it is of broken brick, pottery, hewn stone and 
filth. Herodotus describes it graphically, and says it was truly 
rich in sculptures, and whatever could give character to its pub- 
lic edifices. Rameses the Great, who figured in the world's 
history 1355 years before Christ, left his name here. Here 
may be seen the old canal of Arsinoe, which connected the 
Nile with the Red Sea, — a work of surprising labor, and of 
no ordinary interest, considering that it was dug, according to 
Strabo, by Sesostris, before the Trojan war. Others give the 
credit of the enterprise to Psammeticus II., 600 years before 
our era, at the period of the captivity of Jehoiakim. 

We were marched into a shed, with openings large enough 
for a sheep to leap through, awfully filthy, and found our treas- 



PETRIFIED WOOD. - 259 

ures about us. Our day's journey had not brought us beyond 
the jurisdiction of the fleas; we were less able to contend 
against them than previously, from the loss of vitality. For 
the use of the yard, security, and lodging on a bed of vermin 
almost strong enough to carry us on their backs, there was a 
charge of seventeen cents, of our currency, — cheap, and yet 
how dear ! The camel knelt down for me to mount ; and, as 
soon as I had flung one limb over the saddle, he raised up his 
stem so instantaneously as to throw me over his head, and 
plunge me into the sand ; but the fright exceeded the hurt. 
The sand blew furiously, cutting like a wire, intermixed with 
fine particles of dust from the mounds. This obliged us to 
put on gauze veils, which we had taken the precaution to have 
made in Naples, with reference to this journey. 

Passing the gathering-place of the returning pilgrims from 
Mecca, w^e were gratified with the opportunity of witnessing 
the assembly. Tents were pitched on the sand, and their fine 
Arab steeds were hampered. The whole were to wait till the 
pasha's mother should arrive, when a grand procession would 
enter Cairo. Several large tents w^ere gayly painted, and 
there were camels, donkeys, men gayly dressed, and veiled 
women ; all holy, in their own estimation, for they had been 
seven times round the Caaba, and had prayed before the sepul- 
chre of their prophet. There were small logs of petrified wood 
lying about on the sand, appearing like portions of a limb of a 
tree converted into flint. Quite a collection might be made of 
them, if a person chose to be at the expense of camels to con- 
vey them away. The petrified forest is more imaginary than 
real. I am perplexed in regard to the origin of this silicified 
wood; whether it was manufactured by nature here, or has 
been transported from a distance, is a question for geologists. 

Unfortunately, the w^ater-skin sprung a leak, this morning, 



260 ' A PILGRIMAGE TO EGYPT. 

and half its precious contents was wasted. A few paras were 
the means of refilling it. Boeing fatigued by riding without 
stirrups, I caused an amusing scene by inquiring where a bit 
of rope could be purchased. Nothing but whip-lashes were to 
be had in the bazaar. My inquiry for rope — using the Arabic 
word — excited some commotion ; and a youngster bethought 
him that, at a certain house, near the mosque, there was a 
cord. Down I went to the premises ; but, instead of a man, a 
woman opened the door to my rap. My Frank dress and shorn 
face startled her quite as much as the sight of a female sur- 
prised me. She slammed the door to, instanter. Back I 
went for the person who gave the information, and we returned 
together. After some parleying, a number of women — suffi- 
ciently veiled not to be scandalized — came out, with the rope, 
which was purchased for six piastres, — thirty cents. A bat- 
talion of boys, by this time, had gathered about ; and they all 
followed, helter-skelter, to ascertain whether I was intending to 
hang myself or one of the citizens. My friend, the ambassa- 
dor, succeeded in driving them off. 

An old, broken-down Italian introduced himself as a health- 
officer, and wished to vise our passports ; but, as this was not 
his business, his services were declined. He accosted me in 
another character, and announced himself as a physician; and, 
thereupon, begged a bottle of beer from a brother professional, 
although, a moment before, he invited me to go and get a drink 
of brandy with him. 

Being once more under way, braced in the new stirrups, 
striking off more towards the sun-rising, with nothing but sand 
before us, we were slowly progressing in our journey, when, 
in the distance, a singular vehicle hove in sight, which turned 
out to be an odd sort of coach-body, slung on two long poles, 
sustained by two camels, harnessed in, like a horse, between 



FIRST ENCAMPMENT IN THE DESERT. 261 

the thills in front, and the rear camel following, holding up the 
other extremities. The conclusion was that a harem was being 
transported across the desert to Cairo. While gazing curiously 
upon the odd but comfortable car, a dromedary came swiftly 
pacing over the sand, mounted by an Arab, fantastically dressed 
in slouched sleeves, parti-colored head-dress with dangling 
fringe, red boots, and a sword and pistols in his girdle. As 
soon as he came alongside, to my amazement, he called me by 
name, and inquired in regard to my health, &c. He was asked 
how he knew who I was. "Why, you used to call on my 
master. Col. Willoughby, in Paris ; don't you remember me ? " 
True enough, he was a servant whom I knew there ; and the 
supposed harem consisted only of the veritable Col. Willoughby, 
of Brooklyn, New York, just emerging from the desert, having 
come from Jerusalem. Being in poor health, this contrivance 
was rigged to convey him with more ease than it could be 
accomplished on a camel or horse. I sent a card to him, with 
compliments and good wishes. 

Desert of Arabia, Dec. ^Otk. MoJiday. — First encampment 
on the sand, away from all settlements, — the sun going down 
below the horizon into the real gravel. The wind was blowing 
a gale. A few dry, shrivelled branches of thorny shrubs, and 
an occasional tuft of coarse grass, were noticed, which the cam- 
els seized with a relish, — browsing as they travelled. Hassan, 
the sheik, was a mile or more ahead, in pursuit of a safe 
encamping-ground, when a tall, mouse-colored hound came 
suddenly very near our trail, — the camels being tied in sin- 
gle file, the foremost led by BuckheaJ?. Without reflection, I 
called to him, chirped, &c. ; and he immediately trotted within 
about a rod. This frightened my camel, and away he sprang, 
breaking the halter, and cantering and leaping at a frightful 
rate. In one of his vaultings, he threw me over the saddle-pins ; 



262 A PILGRIMAGE TO EGYPT. 

and I fell ten feet, on the hard gravel-pan, qnlte as bad as a 
bed of granite. Had it not been for the thick overcoat, acting 
as a cushion, my shoulder and right thigh would certainly 
have been fractured or dislocated. The contusion was very 
severe indeed. The contents of some of my pockets were lost ; 
and, among other lamented articles, an excellent penknife, 
purchased in London, that seemed indispensable in travelling. 
After the camel had raced till he was .satisfied, Hassan caught 
him ; but his search for the lost effects was fruitless. Stiff and 
bruised as I was, my diary was written, by a paper lantern held 
close to my feet. 

By good fortune, we fell in, just at dark, with Mr. John C. 
Culburton, of New Albany, Indiana, who was crossing from 
Palestine to Egypt, and with whom I was slightly acquainted, 
having formerly met him at Matlock, in England. Our tents 
were pitched near together ; and, by mixing stores and clubbing 
dishes, we were his guests at supper, while our Arabs were 
smoking and jabbering outside. The camels Were cast in a 
circle round the tent, with their heads inward, with a bit of 
rope, to confine the fore-leg doubled upon itself, so that, if they 
rose, they must hobble upon three legs. This is a universal 
precaution taken with these animals, wherever I have met with 
them, at night. A little bag, containing some three or four 
quarts of dry, pounded straw, — fine as though it had been 
broken in a mortar, — mixed with an ordinary measure of 
beans, of from one to two quarts, slung, by a bail, back of their 
ears, was their supper. Not a drop of water was or could be 
given them. Camels are exceedingly fond of beans. I have 
seen a camel go without his supper, after carrying a heavy 
burden, in a hot sun, all day, rather than feed on barley. 
Horses, in Egypt, are equally eager for the sam.e food. 

There was no sign of a track on the hard pan ; but, where 



SECOND DAY IN THE DESERT. 263 

the sand drifted, tracks were not unfrequently observed. Signs 
of drenching rains were distinctly indicated by the deep furrows 
gullied into the gravel-beds by the running water. Exceed- 
ingly well-marked jasper pebbles, cleft in two, as if effected 
by a chisel, were everywhere strewn around. The concentric 
circles, of different colors, were they ground, would be very 
beautiful for ear-rings and bosom-pins. Hassan contrived to 
get very near when any food was in sight. Like his country- 
men, he is an arrant beggar, not by asking outright, but by 
eying wishfully, as a dog does while waiting for crumbs. For 
himself and Buckheat, he brought about a peck of millet-meal, 
— very similar to Indian-corn meal, — without a drop of water. 
They subsisted thus: Out. of the skin, a little water was 
mixed with the meal, kneaded, by the hand, in a wooden bowl, 
and then flattened. An hour or two before encamping-time, 
wherever a twig or a dead root could be picked up, it was 
thrown on the top of the luggage, and thus fuel was col- 
lected to make a fire. In the hot coals and ashes, raked 
open, the cake was placed, and covered. When baked, it had 
a leathery, doughy toughness ; and that was their supper. 
Generally two were baked, and one saved for their breakfast, — 
which was taken about nine o'clock, next morning, while walk- 
ing by the side of the camels. When we had finished our 
breakfast, before daylight, a tin cup of coffee, thick and black, 
was given them, which master and slave took cosily together. 

Dec. 31. Tuesday. — This was the last day of 1850; and 
we were encamped in company with a large caravan of sixty 
camels, laden with merchandise, bound to Ramlah, the ancient 
Arimathea, in Palestine. With them was a German Jew, a 
Russian Jew, one Syrian, and a large company of Arabs. 
There were represented, in this collection of strangers, in this 
loneliest of places, the four continents. Considerable time was 



264 A PILGRIMAGE TO EGYPT. 

lost, in the forenoon, by wandering out of the direct route, — 
it costing us five piastres to pay a Bedouin, whom the sheik 
hailed at a distance, to put him on the track. 

Passed two large flocks of goats and sheep, in the open des- 
ert, browsing, as they went, on the tc^ps of sparsely-set shrubs, 
and managed by a lone Arab female. There was neither kral, 
house nor hut, to be seen in any direction. . When we drew 
nigh, she squatted down, and drew her ragged veil closely over 
her dingy face. She had on only a single blue garment, — a 
loose frock. Saw a singular toad, with a long tail, very rapid 
in its movements. Had a peep at an owl. Snails, from the 
size of a pea to those of three quarters of an inch in diameter, 
abound, adhering to the under side of the thorn-bushes. Empty 
snail-shells are scattered over the sand everywhere, rolled about 
by the wind. The Jews in our company informed us they were 
from Calcutta, where they had been with indigo, which was 
picked up, in small parcels, in Egypt, as they went on. They 
both wished to set eyes on the holy city of their fathers, Jeru- 
salem. 

Jan. 1, 1851. Wednesday. — This is written on the Des- 
ert of Arabia, but in what latitude or longitude the deponent 
sayeth not. This is the first day of a new year; and I am 
writing this page in a tent, set up in the clean sand, near a 
brackish fountain of water, known as the Well of Arass, where 
caravans usually stop for the night, and water their camels. 
It is the fifth day from Cairo. Several large caravans have 
been discovered to-day, in different directions, right and left ; 
but, as the exact course is not defined, those crossing the desert, 
either way, seldom meet near enough to speak. Like ships at 
sea, they see each other at a distance, but signals have not 
been adopted for carrying intelligence either way. 

A glimpse was had of the extensive mound on which Onias 



INCIDENTS OF THE JOURNEY. 265 

— a son of the Jewish high priest in the time of Ptolemy Philo- 
meter — erected a temple, surrounded by a city, which was 
called Onion, one hundred and eighty years before Christ. 
Josephus explains the history of this novel transaction, by 
which the ambitious priest hoped to draw off the Jews to 
Egypt; and the king hoped, by giving consent for them to 
concentrate there, to strengthen his own hands against a subtle 
enemy, Antiochus. 

Soon after leaving another watering locality, we met Mrs. 
Barton, of Philadelphia, with two other ladies, and a dragoman. 
They had accidentally been separated from their caravan ; and 
we, having seen the animals but a little while before, at a dis- 
tance, readily put them on the right direction. This is very 
dangerous business, to ride off from the main body of the troop, 
where there are no landmarks, no guides, and nothing to sub- 
sist on in case of being lost. 

Snails were so very plenty as to be a subject of constant 
observation. I perceived why all the scanty shrubs are pro- 
tected by innumerable thorns : it has reference to the protection 
of those harmless creatures, which must subserve some import- 
ant purpose in the economy of nature, in these desert regions, 
which naturalists have not explained. 

Passed two great flocks of goats, governed by two Bedouin 
females, veiled, of course, — for it is a disgrace to show their 
faces, even to their flock, one might suppose, from the closeness 
with which their veils are held on. They were alone. Where 
they came from, or how they could find their home, was a mys- 
tery. Not a hut, tree or shelter, to be seen, though the field of 
vision took in a circle of several miles. Several Bedouin Arabs 
passed us, — downcast, black-eyed, cut- throat looking fellows, 
with one exception. We marked one of the band as being a 
finely-proportioned man, whose salaam was quite imperial. We 
23 



266 A PILGRIMAGE TO EGYPT. 

encamped with the same caravan, having been in company- 
through the day. Weather charming ; warm through the day, 
with keen, clear air at night. 

All the desert fountains seen thus far were from six to ten 
feet below the hard pan, which is the common land-level. 
Sand, however, accumulates round them, and constant attention 
is required to keep it out. When we came to one, the Arabs 
would get down to it, — there being palm-tree logs thrown in, 
crosswise, to stand upon. By bailing out the sand and water 
together, a while, there was a chance for dipping up a bucket- 
full of water. A skin, doubled up at the corners, is the usual 
dipper. Nearly every person in a caravan — certainly all the 
drivers — has a sheepskin, with the wool on, which serves all 
imaginable purposes ; and with it they can go through the hard- 
ships of desert-life with a light heart, — it being the one thing 
needful, with them, above all others. When running on foot, 
if there happens to be a cold blast, the skin is suspended from 
the neck by a string, and, hanging down in front, or over the 
shoulder, towards the wind, makes them perfectly comfortable. 
The skin is shifted with each change of wind. When they crawl 
up on the camel to ride, on the top of the load, the skin is their 
cushion. When they come to water, an excavation is made in 
the sand to the dimensions of a good-sized wash-bowl : they go 
down and dip the skin full, — gathering up the margin to make 
a bag, — and, setting it in the sand dish, open it; and the 
camel drinks the precious beverage, as does also his master, 
without wasting a drop. Next, when the camels are unladen 
for the night, he spreads out the skin, and presses it into the 
sand again, puts in meal, pours in water, and makes a batch of 
dough. After eating his frugal supper, — half coals and ashes, 
stuck, like Zant currants in a pudding, all over the sheet of hot 



GEOLOGICAL STRTJCTIJRE OF THE DESEET. 267 

bread, — he reposes on the skin for a pillow; but, if he is cold 
before daylight, it becomes a coverlet. 

From what I have seen of the geological structure of the 
desert, it is almost certain that water might be procured, by- 
boring, anywhere. There is a broad sheet of limestone under- 
lying the sand, perhaps several strata, with sheets of sand 
between, which have been shattered and broken, so that water, 
by hydrostatic pressure, is forced up through, to near the surface. 
The general impression seems to be that all the water that 
oozes up in the deserts, either side of the Nile, is Nile water, 
that has percolated, laterally, to all distances. This cannot be 
the case ; because, in the Fayoon, on the Libyan Desert, the 
water rises and falls, independently of the altitude of the water 
in the channel of the Nile. My views in respect to the 
mechanism of the Nile will be expressed hereafter. 

At the spring of Albarouck there were supposed to be two 
hundred camels watering, — a slow process, in the manner 
already described. 

That there must be some force from the weight of a body 
of water further off, and at a higher level, is infeiTed from 
the fact that it rises in this choked-up depression, where the 
resistance of a column of sand, and the atmospheric pressure 
combined, is overcome, in rising to the surface. 

Jan. 2d. Thursday. — Tedious travelling, rarely exceeding 
twenty -five miles a day, — rising by light, and breakfasting by 
a candle. There were some pleasant episodes, notwithstand- 
ing the peculiarity of our position, at the mercy of those 
wild men. Sometimes the sand was fine, then again it was 
coarse ; and the tumuli, of all dimensions, of pure dry sand, 
— drifted into fantastic as well as symmetrical forms, — 
served to keep the mind in a state of activity. Our sheik 
evidently found himself puzzled to know which way to steer, 



268 A PILGRIMAGE TO EGYPT. 

often, in the course of the day, when no camel-tracks could be 
discovered. Immense curves were needlessly made, in conse- 
quence of having no certain method of keeping on the desert- 
line. Some of the sand-hills were very beautiful indeed, they 
were so gracefully moulded, and presented such waving out- 
lines, besides being heaped up to the amazing height of several 
hundred feet, in many places. 

At the west of our course, to-day, apparently six miles dis- 
tant, there were several enormous sand-hills in view, that were 
symmetrically pyramidal, and would be taken to be similar 
to those of Geezeh, did we not know, for a certainty, that no 
such structures were ever raised here. One of them, particu- 
larly, was, to my apprehension, four hundred feet high, and 
carried to a sharp, well-defined, four-sided apex, similar to the 
pyramid of Cephrines, the only remaining one in Egypt that 
retains its original hard plaster covering at the top. 

We passed a line of date-trees. Patches of them extended 
some miles in a ravine, protected by a mighty wall, as it were, 
of sand, heaped up from twenty to one hundred feet, or more. 
In some of the clusters were the krals of Bedouins ; — an ele- 
mentary house, made by sticking palm-leaf stalks into the sand, 
and constructing a frail yard, within which is a chocolate-colored 
goat's-hair tent-cover, under which the family crawl, for protec- 
tion and comfort, at night. Where these settlements are, there 
we see numbers of females, who are as cautious to keep their 
faces securely covered as the kadines of the Sultan of Turkey. 
Once only we surprised some small boys and girls at play, who 
were as timid as gazelles, and fled for dear life at the awful 
appearance of howadjis. 

If the roots of the palms did not reach the sheet of water that 
lies on the limestone under the sand, they would certainly die. 
On the banks of the Nile I have repeatedly studied the pecu- 



LOSS OF TIME IN THE DESERT JOURNEY. 269 

liarity of their structure. Their fibrous roots, the size of drum- 
cords, are not unfrequently twenty feet in length, going down 
to the water-level. When a palm is growing on an artificial 
mound, its roots penetrate down through the whole mass, to 
the common fountain of their vitality. All the shafts of these 
trees are shorter than in Egypt, but their diameter is about the 
same. It was up hill and down to-day, the sand being thrown 
into all the undulations, depressions, ridges, sharp points and 
gentle swells, that distinguish the landscape in some of the rural 
districts of our own dear country, ■ — but bald, not a spear of 
vegetation being on them. We already discovered that much 
precious time^ is completely lost, in traversing this desert, by 
not knowing the exact direction. If a line of stakes were 
driven, — after the manner of showing the course of a road, 
when covered by snow-drifts, — they would be of priceless 
value. An objection has been raised to them, that they would 
dam up the sand, or, rather, become the nuclei for great accu- 
mulations, by the resistance they would offer. If the sand did 
collect, so that there was danger of covering them, by pulling 
them up a foot or two, they would still be in place. If stakes 
were driven, by a compass, a caravan might reach Jerusalem, 
Damascus and Aleppo, in two-thirds the time now occupied in 
puzzling out the way. 

All the camels were hampered, cracking their supper of 
beans and straw, the Arabs busily employed round their scanty 
fires, baking bread and supper, when Buckheat commenced a 
narrative of his life, — short, to be sure, for he was but seven- 
teen years of age. He was stolen from Darfour, in Africa, 
only last season, and brought down the Nile to Cairo, where 
Hassan, our sheik, bought him for sixty-four dollars of our 
money. He is a good-natured, obliging, quick-witted, trusty 
fellow, the right hand of his master. He further said he had 
23^ 



2.70 A PILGRIMAGE TO EGYPT. 

a wife at Cairo, having recently procured her. Hassan and 
his slave were friends, eating, drinking, sleeping and laboring 
together. 

All the information we gathered from these, or any other 
Arabs, was through their language, and not our own. Each 
day we gained a little ; and this was the advantage of having 
no dragoman, and being obliged to speak. There is a natural 
language of signs, which can never be mistaken, when articu- 
late sounds fail. By a combination of these two, we think we 
perfectly understood the common suggestions, the answers to 
our questions, and other generalizations. We certainly held 
animated conversations, when we had rights to maintain, which 
were never misunderstood. Praise and blame were readily 
comprehended, and sometimes both parties had the force of 
sentiments expressed too keenly. Our usual custom, daily, 
was to keep our arms in good order. Mr. Warren carried a 
gun slung at his saddle-pin ; I had a horse-pistol, with a per- 
cussion lock, excessively admired by Arabs, who have the old 
flints yet, missing fire half the time. But it was never loaded ; 
and the three balls — all I ever had — were carried in a clothes- 
bag. However, it appeared well; and lookers-on, no doubt, 
supposed it loaded half up to the muzzle. In my travelling- 
bag was an India-rubber bottle, in which I kept a reserved fund 
of water, unbeknown to any one, to be used in case of emer- 
gency. 

Whenever we happened to join a caravan, most of the cam- 
els had little parcels of the dry fibrous parts of the palm-tree, 
that grow about the base of the leaf-stalks, — a kind of net- 
work of fibres, which nature employs for bracing the long stem. 
As soon as we encamped, all the old men immediately com- 
menced rolling it into twine, and finally into cordage, making 
ropes an inch in diameter, of the very strongest kind. It was 



SAND-HILLS IN THE DESERT. 271 

curious to watch the rapidity with which an experienced old 
Arab would manufacture thirty feet of excellent cordage. They 
would twist three strands at the same time ; invariably holding 
all three at the distal extremity with the great and next toe, 
slipping it along between the toes, as the twine was twisted 
into one, as though they were the jaws of a vice. They renew 
the business and continue the rope daily, while the young men 
are taking care of the camels and baking bread. All their 
binding ropes, cords and twine, for their own use, are made on 
these desert jaunts ; and nearly all in Jaffa, Alexandria, &c., 
for ship use, is thus produced. One man alone, sitting fiat 
down on the sand, will make more than a good workman 
among us could produce in the same time, in ordinary rope- 
walks, with the assistance and advantage of a twisting-wheel. 

Jan. 2d. Friday. — Frequent showers through the day, 
with cool nights ; towards noon, warm and sunny. A range 
of sand-hills, running east and west ; at the base, facing north, 
was a ravine ; and within, a growth of bushes, with a few 
palms, and a little brackish water, that created more thirst than 
it quenched. The ground was uneven; we ascended, occasion- 
ally, considerable elevations, where there were knolls still 
higher, Vv^ith a sprinkling of low shrubs, around which the sand 
collects; fhe plants stretch up, to keep from being over- 
whelmed, and more sand clusters round the mass, till it is 
sometimes thus raised into the form of a haycock, ten feet high. 
The roots become correspondingly long. These, exposed by 
the force of the wind, soon dry, and resemble large-sized iron 
wire, — constituting the principal fuel of the desert. 

Came in view of the coast of the Mediterranean, sparsely 
dressed in poor, barren bushes. The sheik turned further 
inland. Saw two very light-footed gazelles, browsing, — at 
first supposed to be deer. They trotted off at a gentle speed, 



272 A PILGRIMAGE TO EGYPT. 

with an air of freedom which nothing else but wild beasts 
enjoy on these sterile sands. Soon after, saw a rabbit ; poor, 
timid creature, he was commiserated for having his lot cast on 
this desolate ocean of moving sands. Next, a red fox capered 
over the clean sand, as though he- felt his independence. Then 
came a box-turtle, four inches long. He made no attempt at 
escape, but simply drew in his head, and shut up the house. 
It beguiled away some lonely hours, — while going, jerk, jerk, 
between the two saddle-pins, — to study this reptile's general 
structure, and speculate upon its history. Curiosity would 
sometimes get the better of its judgment; it would gradually 
force its head out, till the eyes were far enough to see what 
society it was in, when it would be darted back again in a 
fright, as much as to say. Who are you ? Nature has been 
forcing a few spires of grass up through the sand, on the 
route, to-day; the thin, slender stalks have the appearance of 
grain, just springing up after a shower. Occasionally detected 
a Bedouin, at a distance, alone, stretching out into the pathless 
desert, with no other guides than the twinkling stars of the 
firmament. Tracks of various wild animals were often seen, 
— one being those of the wild boar. Companies of animals, 
from the freshness of their foot-prints, appear to have all been 
going the same way, peaceably, the line of tracks b*eing paral- 
lel. They were supposed to have been to a watering-place, to 
which they go without quarrelling. Bones of camels were 
strewn everywhere. Were the sands immovable, the route 
might be kept by following the direction of their carcasses, — 
from bleached bones to those that broke down no longer ago 
than yesterday, under the weight of burdens and hunger com- 
bined. Some rapacious vultures, of a large size, with bloody 
beaks, were lounging near a half-destroyed body, on which they 
had been engorging themselves. We overtook some wayfarers 



CAMELS. 273 

who had picked up a camel left to die, two or three days before. 
They nursed and coaxed hini into a sturdy, improving beast. 
Camels are badly treated in caravans. They are often over- 
loaded, which they make known by a disagreeable cry ; but 
they are beaten unmercifully, if they hesitate, or refuse to 
move. Their saddles are never taken off, when unladen, but 
kept on the whole time. Even when browsing, a hundred or 
two together, the saddles are not removed. Fetid ulcers, dis- 
charging matter that runs down their sides, rarely call for pity, 
and never, to my knowledge, for medication. We once called 
the attenfion of the sheik to the shocking condition of the back 
of the camel that carried the water-casks ; but he disregarded 
it, as of no consequence. 

The male camels, at certain periods, become ferocious, and 
absolutely terrific. When the paroxysm is coming on, they 
puff out a membraneous bladder, covered with froth, and utter 
horrible noises. Every one springs towards them, with cudgels, 
instantly, and within a few minutes they become manageable 
again. One of our six was of this character ; and, becoming 
formidable, he was one day thrown and held dow*n, till the 
sheik plucked long hairs enough, from the end of his tail, to 
make a yard of twine, strongly twisted. He then bored the 
septum of the nostrils, and run it through. To that he tied a 
cord ; and, ever after, when he began to play off his constitu- 
tional pranks, a slight twitch on the hair-twine would bring 
him instantly under subjection. A mad camel — one conscious 
that his driver stands in fear of him — soon becomes dano^er- 
ous ; and great severity is resorted to, before he is subdued. 

Jan. 4:tk. Saturday. — Nothing remarkable. Passed sev- 
eral droves of brood camels. They are raised, in this horribly 
lonesome place, under the care of Bedouins, who keep them. 
Cut bushes when we pitch the tent, and spread the mattress 



274 A PILGRIMAGE TO EGYPT. 

upon them, to have a little soft repose, — the sand proving too 
hard and damp, for it has rained. Skeletons of camels, in any 
quantity. Saw a large pelican, — no way alarmed, — a few 
strange birds, one gazelle, and some rabbits. Ascertained that 
nine languages are spoken by five persons who have fallen into 
our company. I am quite unwell. 

El Arish, Jan. btk. Sunday. — Arrived here late this morn- 
ing. It is a miserable sand-hill, without a green thing, two 
miles from the sea, — the last border-town of Egypt. One 
mile and a half would take us into Palestine. A pasha, or 
governor, resides here, in one corner of an old fort, which is in 
a ruinous state, without a gun. Straggling half mud and half 
stone hovels are plenty outside. Hassan, our sheik, resided 
here ; two of his boys came to our tent. Some informality 
was represented to have been discovered in our papers. A 
few cavalry soldiers were prancing about in the sand, — the 
instruments of Ibrahim Aga, the governor. This El Areesh — 
usually written El Arish — was the ancient Rinocolura, a 
place of exile, to which the ancient kings of Egypt sent certain 
offenders, after maiming them by cutting off their noses. Gran- 
ite columns, bits of marble, portions of cornices, &c., clearly 
show this has once been a place of renown. One of the cru- 
sading kings died in this fort, but his name is not recollected. 
A few rods in front of our tent was a handsome sand-hill, some 
few square rods of it being enclosed by a rope on stakes, within 
which were three tents. It was the quarantine station, into 
which every person coming from Syria must enter, and remain 
five days, — sick or well, — provide for himself and camels, 
and pay a dear price for rent of the ground, and afterwards 
pass on. Health is no way considered ; it is a scheme for 
raising a revenue out of travellers. An Italian renegado, who 
palms himself off as a physician, but who knows nothing what- 



VEXATIOUS DETENTION. 275 

ever of medicine, as he confessed to me, has charge of it, under 
Ibrahim Aga. They play into each other's pockets most profit- 
ably. 

Jan. Qth. — Not allowed to proceed ; we therefore requested 
leave to return instantly. I was seated in our half-open tent, 
writing, the Mediterranean in sight, and wild men of the des- 
ert and official rascals lounging about in their turbans, when 
this was written. Had a long and tedious interview with the 
black-hearted old villain, Ibrahim Aga, who was seated cross- 
legged on a kind of tailor's bench, puffing a long chebouck. 
Not a word was said oftener than once in a quarter of an hour, 
upon the average. We discovered that it was contemplated to 
rob us by a measure that might have all the appearance of a 
legal act. In short, every one of the governor's minions hoped 
for a dip into our pockets. The Italian assured us, over and 
over, that our papers w^re right; but the governor's son, Hasen 
Aga, — an evil spirit on earth, — was at the bottom of the 
scheme, and, therefore, there was no reasonable expectation of 
advancing, for we were determined not to be obliged to bribe 
any of them. We had just about money enough to pay for 
the camels, on arriving at Ramlah ; but, if it was diverted to 
these cut-throats, there would be a difficulty with our sheik, at 
the end of the journey, as no money could be procured with 
our letters of credit till we arrived at Jerusalem. Gausep 
Andreg, the counterfeit doctor, was the tool in their hands, and 
was the principal medium of communication between us. If 
the word rascal were written, where it should be, on his fore- 
head, his face would express the true character of his heart. 
Frequent intimations were given that we might go on by pay- 
ing a certain sum. We entered a formal protest to the gov- 
ernor, and threatened to complain to Abbas Pasha of his con- 
duct, if he detained us another hour; as, if there was any 



276 A PILGRIMAGE TO EGYPT. 

further detention, our provisions would fail, and then we must 
be fed. This evidently alarmed his hateful excellency. As 
we were in no condition to bribe, we simply asked to return 
forthwith, which could not be done till he gave the sheik leave 
to go with us, because we could not return alone. We sympa- 
thized with the Jew indigo-merchants who were placed in the 
same dilemma, and who were treated with the utmost con- 
tempt. 

Jan. 1th. — We were suffering intensely from anxiety, as 
the season for travelling, before the annual rains set in, was 
approaching, and every hour was of consequence. King Bald- 
win died in this wretched fortress. We again went into the 
awful presence of the perpetually-smoking pasha. Two young 
children of his — a boy and girl, by his fortieth wife, perhaps 
— were brought to the footstool of his sandy throne. The 
little girl had silver anklets, strung round with silver bells, 
which made a fine tinkling noise whenever agitated. One of 
the Jews said that permission had been granted him to leave, 
by paying fifteen dollars. Without a written permission, it 
would be a pretext for bringing us back, and fining or impris- 
oning us, without mercy ; or the old cheat might send men 
to rob us. We saw and heard enough to know that our safety 
consisted in returning by varying the route. We arrived here 
on the morning of the fifth ; and past noon, on the seventh, 
Hassan finally got a paper permitting us to return. Thus we 
were detained two days, for no purpose but a hope that we 
should hand over a good sum of money ; but, that not coming, 
and the threat to complain of all of them, for detention without 
cause, being more than expected, the governor, we imagined, 
would have been glad to have us proceed. But we dared not 
risk his infernal scheming ; and therefore hastened back from 
whence we came. The Italian came to me for medicine, and 



CONTINUED ATTEMPTS AT ANNOYANCE. 277 

proposed that I should go with him to see a sick person, in the 
tahooed enclosure. This was unquestionably a part of a plot. 
Had a foot been set over the line, a new aspect would instantly 
have been given to our affairs ; for I should have been made a 
prisoner, and perhaps heavily fined. All the plans for raising 
money out of us failed. We joined company with a caravan 
bound to Cairo with soap, with about thirty Arab owners and 
drivers. An Arab, on horseback, wearing a long sword, over- 
took us, a mile or so from El Arish. He was recognized as 
the same fellow who had been hanging about the tent, demand- 
ing backshiesh, because we had travelled over some part of his 
territory, in the desert. For several hours he followed on, 
occasionally riding up to the side of my camel, to know if I 
intended to pay him or not. Being out of all patience, my 
empty pistol was held out, with an intimation that he would be 
paid, with a vengeance, if he troubled us any further; upon 
which he quickly disappeared, for the last time. Being with 
a caravan serves to strengthen one's courage ; for the Be- 
douins are like wolves, — never attacking without being the 
strongest party. Very soon a cavalry soldier of the station 
came up with us ; he was the bearer of despatches from the 
governor to Cairo, relating, it was rumored, particularly to our- 
selves. The object was to contradict any statement we might 
be induced to make touching his master's official conduct. 
When the tent was pitched for the night, and our miserable 
dinner prepared, he had the impudence to attempt quartering 
himself on us, as he was a public messenger. He was driven 
out, with indignation, to the universal joy of the company. 

One afternoon, while with this great company of Arabs, after 
the camp was arranged, and the rope-making had been com- 
menced, I shaved myself. Some of them happened to get a 
sight of my razor, and the word passed round that I was a 
24 



278 A PILGRIMAGE TO EGYPT. 

hakem ; and, consequently, they all wanted their heads shaved. 
On my refusing, they said. Why not ? you are a doctor. They 
associated the business of a barber with that of medicine. 
They then wanted the razor ; and the denial rather discom- 
posed some of the young men, who had not had their pates 
shorn for ten days, and were very anxious for it. They then 
commenced shaving each others' heads with a short, stump 
razor, two inches long, with a wooden handle. They had 
plenty of soap, it being on freight ; but they never lather at all. 
The operation, which has been previously described, was per- 
formed with surprising quickness. By means of it they get 
clear of lice, which forage all over their bodies ; but they can 
get at them anywhere easier than on their own heads. Ver- 
min abound on camels, and thus creep to their riders, and there 
is no escape from them. 

In good time, without accident, we arrived again in the city 
of Cairo. A note was addressed to the American consul-gen- 
eral, in regard to our loss of time, fatigue, and the expense we 
had been at, through the ignorance of the Syrian who officiated 
for the vice-consul ; and, in the second place, a complaint was 
made against the governor, for detention and rude treatment, 
in not letting us instantly turn back, when he informed us our 
papers were not legally prepared. We had been taxed one 
dollar for a certificate saying we Avere citizens of America, on 
our arrival at Alexandria, which was of no use whatever, never 
having been shown till taken out at El Arish, and then it was 
frowned upon. The consul addressed a note to his vice-con- 
sul, who can neither read, write nor speak English, for a report 
of the manner in which our papers were prepared. He got word 
of our arrival, and, at ten o'clock at night, when we were in 
bed, called us up, and pleaded for mercy, saying, if we pressed 
, the matter, it would ruin him. He acknowledged his boy had 



AMERICAN CONSULS IN EGYPT. ^79 

done wrong ; and one paper in particular, which he furnished, 
and insisted upon receiving pay for, — namely, a permit to carry 
arms, but which we refused to purchase, — was a gross attempt 
at swindling. We remained several days, hoping for the report, 
to defend ourselves against any false statement, almost certain 
to come from a Levantine, as the consul happened to be in 
Cairo. We could remain no longer ; satisfied that his safety 
depended on delay, the vice-consul maintained silence ; but, on 
arriving at Alexandria, — the consul having, in the mean while, 
arrived, — the vice-consul's report reached us. It was made 
perfectly plain that the Syrian did exactly right, and that we 
were detained through our own obstinacy. The whole was a 
contemptible falsehood, — a lie, from beginning to end ; and 
the representative of the United States treated us with a cold- 
ness and cavalier reserve that indicated a determination to sus- 
tain his tool at Cairo, let who would be injured, incommoded, 
insulted, or wronged, by those whose first duty it w^as to aid, 
assist and protect them. If our government knew how the 
United States were represented, and how^ the citizens were 
preyed upon by unprincipled men, while travelling in distant 
countries, a revelation would soon be brought about in the 
consular department. Because we remonstrated against the 
unrighteous report of the supple, deceitful knave at Cairo, we 
have been hearing unfavorable remarks ever since, used to 
prejudice other travellers, who might at any time fall in our 
way ; w^hile they also serve as an argument to persuade new 
comers to pay for what may not be needed. The money 
extorted in this w^ay amounts to a comfortable sum, in addition 
to the official's salary of three thousand dollars per annum. 



280 A PILGRIMAGE TO EGYPT. 

THE NILE. 

This mysterious river bears a very strong resemblance to 
the Mississippi. It is equally rapid and turbid, in consequence 
of holding an immense amount of unctuous mud in solu- 
tion. Although there are a few short curves, most of them 
are graceful sweeps, allowing an extended field of vision, up 
and down the stream, for a considerable distance. In the 
course of some thousands of years, it has repeatedly shifted its 
bed ; and is perpetually wearing into the land, one side or the 
other, although the process is slower than in the great rivers 
of the United States. From the foot of the first cataract to the 
Mediterranean, — not far from eight hundred miles, — it falls 
three hundred feet, or at the rate of about five inches to the 
mile. Where the fall is but three inches to the mile, it is a 
swift stream to row against ; but at five inches, a strong wind 
is required, to stem the current. All the Nile boats are con- 
structed to draw a light draft, with one enormously large trian- 
gular sail, rigged to the top of a short, stout mast, near the 
bow. Some have two sails. No one knows where the water 
comes from, its origin having never been explored, notwith- 
standing the confident manner in which it is asserted that the 
Nile takes its rise in the Mountains of the Moon. Those 
mountains are very probably in the locality assigned to them, 
— the moon, — since no traveller on earth has seen them in a 
satisfactory way to determine a question so long mooted. It 
is a solitary river, without a single tributary stream, of 
any kind whatever, at a high point in Africa. It continues 
its course to the distance of not more than a dozen miles 
below Cairo, when it bifurcates into two branches, the Rosetta 
and Damietta, emptying into the sea. All Egypt may be said 
to depend on the Nile for water, for all purposes. There are 



THE NILE. 281 

brackish sprmgs on some parts of the deserts, where water, in 
small quantities, may be procured ; but the general impression 
k that it all comes from the Nile, and, in a depression of the 
Libyan desert, is supplied from the same source. All animal 
and vegetable life is dependent on the Nile, therefore, through- 
out this singularly-marked country. It annually overflows its 
banks, and floods the country, back to the natural barriers that 
restrain its waters to positive limits, leaving, on its subsidence, 
a vast amount of slimy mud, on which the fertility of the land 
entirely depends. Professor Ehrenberg, of the University of 
Berlin, who is soon expecting to publish a work on the subject, 
informed me that he had discovered that the deposit was not 
mud, — the common idea, — but actually, the largest part of it, 
infusorial insects ; in a word, the land-dressing is animal mat- 
ter. This gives a new interest to investigations in regard to 
the general functions of the river, and the origin of such an 
amount of minute animal organizations. Thousands of people, 
of both sexes, are incessantly employed in raising water, for 
domestic purposes, and for irrigating the land. 

From the terminus, to unknown regions from whence it flows, 
there is one single stream, lying nearly in the centre of a rich 
alluvial meadow, — averaging eight miles, apparently, in width, 
— bounded by two parallel mountain-ridges, extending nearly 
north and south, from the lower part of Egypt, towards the sea, 
to the interior of Africa. - Behind these elevations, are two vast 
deserts of fine, dry sand, — the eastern being the Arabian, and 
the western the Libyan. On approaching the first cataract, 
the arable land becomes much narrower, being wholly on one 
side for a considerable distance, and then upon the other. 
From the fact of the uncertain and irregular encroachments 
of the river upon its banks, the land is unstable, having 
all been deposited by the river, and being constantly removed 
24^ 



282 A PILGRIMAGE TO EGYPT. 

by it from one position, to be transported elsewhere. There 
is rarely any rain, in Upper Egypt, of sufficient duration to 
exert much influence on the Nile. As low down as Alexan- 
dria, there is a season for showers, and occasional heavy 
rains ; but they make no perceptible addition to the volume of 
the water. There is no way for the v/ater to escape from 
its bed, otherwise than by evaporation, because its level is 
below the natural walls, which were intended, by the omnip- 
otent contriver of this extraordinary hydraulic apparatus, to 
restrain the floods to prescribed limits, at the periodical rise. 
These natural walls are regular horizontal layers of limestone, 
appearing, at the distance of a few rods, to be Cyclopsean 
masonry. The regularity of the strata shows they were formed 
at the bottom of a primitive ocean, in a perfect state of repose. 
Afterwards, they were gradually raised to their present position, 
no subterranean force having tilted them from their original 
place. In the bends and angles formed by the uninterrupted 
beating of the waters are spots for agricultural purposes. On 
these narrow strips of land were the earliest seats of civilization. 
After a patient exploration of this mysterious river, — observ- 
ing its width, depth, and momentum, above Syene, with its 
velocity, volume, and other physical circumstances, three hun- 
dred miles below, independent of the magnitude and power 
above the bifurcation into the Damietta and Kosetta branches, 
— I am convinced that the water of the lower Nile does not all 
flow in the narrow, shallow bed of the Upper Nile, nor come 
over the first cataract. By the annual rise and fall, the quality 
of the land is improved, as there is a re-deposit of the material 
sustenance of plants. By this annual flood, the whole valley 
of the Nile has been gradually rising, by deposits spread uni 
formly over the surface. This explains the appearance of pot- 
tery, brick, stone, and other remains of ancient art, protruding 



SOURCE OF THE WATERS OF THE NIL;:. 283 

through the banks, many feet below the common land-level. 
By the never-ceasing activity of this river, the sites of ancient 
towns have been swept away, and foundations laid for new 
ones, in every age of the world's history; and, through the 
agency of it, the remains of primitive art, in all departments of 
life, are, probably, strewn extensively over the territories of the 
successors of the Pharaohs, where they are hermetically sealed 
up from vulgar inspection, to be brought up, in some future 
period, to illustrate, more fully than it has yet been done, the 
genius, mechdnical ingenuity, and taste of the first races who 
figured on the oldest and most curious of all inhabited countries 
on the globe. The old beds of the river, and the revelations in 
reserve, — which the sand has been securing for after ages, — 
will constitute a grand and startling episode in the world's 
history, for the study and contemplation of coming generations. 
Where does the w^ater come from, in the Nile, if it does not 
follow the common open channel ? It is my opinion that the 
tributaries of the Nile, like the subterranean rivers of Kentucky 
and Tennessee, course through channels under the limestone 
bed on which the sands of the deserts rest. Possibly they have 
drilled passages through the soft magnesian limestone, draining 
enormous sections of country, where the annual quantity of 
rain, distributed at specific intervals of time, could not all be 
evaporated ; but, percolating through the arid covering of the 
seamed and fractured stratum of rocks below, finds its way 
through the underground crevices, and gradually collects into 
rivulets, which creep out from under the margin of the Arabian 
and Libyan deserts, and thus unite with the Nile, one of the 
gigantic common sewers of the African continent. In the 
Fyoom and the Oases, on the Libyan side, there are springs, 
and an occasional rise of the water, wholly independent of any 
probable connection with the river. When it is low Nile, 



284 A PILGEIMAGE TO EGYPT. 

without any assignable cause understood by the inhabitants, 
the water suddenly increases above its ordinary level ; and, as 
frequently as otherwise, it falls below the height of the water 
at high Nile, — showing that there can be no possible connec- 
tion. Then, again, in the little Oasis, are the warm springs 
of Bowitti and El Kasr, having a temperature of ninety-three 
and a half degrees Fahrenheit; but no philosopher in his senses 
would pretend that hot water comes from the Nile ! It strikes 
me that these phenomena, in regard to the water rising in 
the desert, are to be explained thus : When heavy rains have 
occurred, remote from the Abyssinian Nile, the surplus water 
is carried off by the concealed channels spread out variously 
under the limestone, coursing over an argillaceous bed, wend- 
ing its way, finally, into the Lower Nile, at numerous points, 
while some of the conduits have their mouths opening into the 
Mediterranean. Under ordinary circumstances, the water flows 
on quietly ; but in case of the sudden fall of rains, the waters 
are not liberated, at the distal extremities of the tubes, fast 
enough to prevent a prodigious pressure of the column above, 
which forces it out at the leakages, — sections of country where 
the weight of earth has been removed ; or, in other words, the 
pipes are thinner, and therefore offer less resistance. It is there 
the rise takes place ; but, when the rains subside, — the press- 
ure being removed, — the extra accumulation, a miniature 
flood, gradually drains off, and finds an exit further onward. 

One has only to see the places in the Arabian Desert which are 
denojninated watering-stations, — many of which are believed to 
be considerably higher than the Nile, — to be convinced that the 
water in them is from another source. Its very brackish char- 
acter indicates, too, another origin ; for, when the soil, or sand, 
is thoroughly mixed with pure Nile water, no such property is 
imparted to it ; and hence the conclusion is, that the salts in 



FEMALE WATER-CAREIEIIS. 



285 



solution, giving the desert water its unpalatable properties, are 
imparted to it in a distant and more southern region. 

With these views of the geological structure of the country, 
the expectation is entertained that the period will arrive, in the 
progress of events, when many of those unsuspected aqueducts 
that ramify under the mighty oceans of shifting sands will be 
penetrated with augers, and fountains of sparkling water wnll 
gush up to the surface, to fertilize and prepare those frightful 
wastes for the residence of another and superior race of men to 




ORNAMENTED BLACK VEILS. 



the nomads w^ho are now^ roaming over them, poised upon the 
hump of the patient camel, guided in their endless wanderings 
alone by the twinkling stars. 

One of the first novelties, on sailing up the Nile, is the mul- 



286 A PILGRIMAGE TO EGYPT. 

titudes of females transporting water, on their heads, in large, 
heavy earthen jars, from morning till night, to the huts and 
villages. They are generally slender, muscular, finely formed, 
and remarkably straight in their figures. Spinal diseases are 
unknown to them ; nor have they to contend with any of those 
peculiar diseases that undermine the constitutions of young 
women in our own country. They are usually barefooted, and 
wear but a single garment, — a coarse blue cotton frock, with 
bag sleeves, split down pretty low in front, open, exposing the 
chest ; but they are extremely cautious to conceal their faces 
with a rag of a shawl, a piece of cotton, — a remnant, perhaps, 
of their dress, — or with a regularly fashioned veil of the coun- 
try, suspended from the forehead by a brass contrivance of short 
ferrules, or a simple cord. 

Asses, in the cities, are uninterruptedly carrying water, in 
the skins of animals, taken off whole ; and camels, laden with 
capacious leather bags, and m^en, weighed down by skins slung 
over their shoulders, pursue water-carrying as a distinct em- 
ployment. 

It is a subject of surprise that no easier method for raising 
water from the river has been invented than the abominably 
uncouth wheel, — usually turned by an ox, — having a rope 
running over, on w^hich earthen pots, with wide, open mouths, 
are strung, which come up, on one side, full, pour out their 
contents into a trough, in passing over the periphery, and pass 
down, on the opposite side, empty. A simple pump is rarely 
seen in Egypt ; and yet, for all purposes, it would be immensely 
superior, more economical, and far less laborious, than the 
shadoof (well-pole), or sakkia, or the ox- wheel. 

In order to give the fields two or three miles from the river 
the advantages of irrigation, — without which nothing would 
grow, — deep canals are cut, miles in length, terminating, in 



LAND-TENURE IN EGYPT. 



289 



some places, in artificial basins of many acres, surrounded by 
a strong mud embankment, for retaining the water. When the 
periodical rains in Abyssinia set in, and the river rises, over- 
flowing its banks, the sluices are opened, and the canals and 
reservoirs are filled and secured for future use. This scheme 
has been practised since the land was first inhabited. Without 
this annual supply, all cultivation would cease, and a famine 
assuredly follow. 




DRIJIJKING-TVATER CARRIER. 



LAND-TENURE AND AGRICULTURE. 

The land in Egypt is wholly and exclusively the property of 
the pasha : he takes and gives according to his individual pleas- 
ure, and there is no redress whatever. When Mohammed Ali 
became the master of Egypt, he took the whole into his own 
private keeping ; but made a faint show of justice, by giving a 
25 



290 A PILGRIMAGE TO EGITT. 

pension, for life, to the proprietors of certain parcels. Both 
himself and the present viceroy, his grandson, have made an 
odcasional present of tracts of land, with villages attached, to 
their favorites, which will always remain the property of the 
person to whom it was given, and his successors, unless the 
succeeding ruler should fancy it for himself, or choose to confer 
it on another. Under such circumstances, there can be no 
legal redress, because the viceroy's will is the law, nor is he 
accountable to his subjects for any act. His agents and sub- 
agents, in the various districts, portion out the land among the 
fellahs, or farmers, according to their ability to pay the rent, 
which averages two dollars a feddan — a trifle less than an acre 
— per annum. Then there are direct taxes on the land, vary- 
ing according to the caprice of the government, aggravated 
and made more oppressive by the higher officers of the pacha- 
lic, who so niake their assessments as to provide for them- 
selves at the time they are collecting for their master at Cairo. 
If the farmer has no seed, nor money to purchase it, the 
government advances it, takes half the crop, requires interest 
on the unrighteous price charged for it, and forbids the sale 
of what remains to the cultivator to any one but the govern- 
ment, at its own price. The farmers of a village belong to the 
neighboring lands ; nor are they permitted to go and come 
freely, or remove to another town. Where they happen to be, 
there they are compelled to remain. Boatmen, travelling 
merchants, and some kinds of mechanics, are an exception. 
Their lives are lives of hardship, insecurity and oppression. 
Some of them wander off, and, not unfrequently, seek employ- 
ment in the cities ; but, if laborers are scarce, or not propor- 
tioned to the ground, in the region from whence they absconded, 
they are conveyed back, pinioned, and, besides, are not per- 
mitted to escape a cruel beating. 



AGRICULTURE. 291 

By the shifting of the lands nearest to the river, the govern- 
ment, v^hich owns the whole, loses nothing in territory ; where- 
as, were the fields private property, and bought and sold, as in 
the United States, the owner of this year might not have a yard 
square the next ; while his opposite neighbor, irrigating a mere 
strip, like a ribbon, might wake up, on the subsidence of the 
flood, and find himself the possessor of many broad acres, where 
there were none before. This characteristic restlessness of old 
Nilus has been painfully destructive to settlements on its banks. 
All the lands fit for cultivation, in Lower Egypt, are continually 
yielding crops, except at high water. A field is no sooner 
harvested, than it is again sown. The ploughing, which is 
light, and by a plough of the rudest form, has been previously 
described. No hoeing is required. Successful farming con- 
sists in unceasing irrigation ; and, for that purpose, both sides 
of the river are lined with shadoofs and sakkias. The water 
is conducted by mud spouts, or trenches, to each fibre of the 
growing produce. The heavy hoe, before alluded to, is the 
principal agricultural tool within the reach of the farmer. A 
shovel was not seen beyond the public works. Instead of 
being dry and mellow, the field is such that the laborer stands 
in a soft, slimy mud, up to his ankles. Indian corn and millet 
are universally raised, sown in rows, thick as the stalks can 
stand. Castor-beans, tares and sugar-cane, — planted in the 
same manner, — are the prominent crops in Upper Egypt. 
Wheat, barley, and some other grains, are also extensively cul- 
tivated. It is almost certain that the system of cultivation is 
precisely what it was some thousands of years ago, in the 
whole valley. They raised cotton then, as at present; the 
evidence is beyond all contradiction, in the millions of yards 
of cotton cloth consumed in mummefying the dead ; and the 
agricultural instruments have not been materially changed. In 



292 A PILGRIMAGE TO EGYPT. 

one of the royal tombs of Thebes, extending into the solid rock 
four hundred and five feet, in which was the body of Rameses 
III., who ascended the throne one thousand two hundred and 
thirty-five years before our era, I examined the painting of a 
plough, which is precisely like those now in every-day use. 1 
have seen a poor, destitute, nearly naked fellah, harrowing in 
grain, by dragging a small log to and fro, over the ground, by a 
bit of rope passing over his shoulder. Camels, cows, asses and 
men, are employed in ploughing. The farmer uses no whip, 
but carries a staff from ten to fifteen feet long, armed at one 
end with a sharp iron spur, and having at the other a rough 
iron chisel, with a socket, to fasten it on. With one he pricks 
the animals, to urge them on ; and with the other clears the 
coulter of mud, weeds, or whatever may obstruct the free move- 
ment of the plough. It is surprising how well they furrow the 
field with their miserable machine ; the cut is but a few inches 
deep, but well turned. Grain being strewn, the plough follows, 
to cover it ; or, when sown in rows, a furrow is turned over 
the seeds. Field hands are literally naked, with the excep- 
tion of a scanty piece of cloth round the loins, and a dirty, 
close-fitting cap, to protect their shorn skulls from the intensity 
of the sun. There are tracts of land entirely broken up by 
the hoe, where a gang of a dozen men, keeping side by side, 
work back and forward, across the field. Their attitude is 
precisely that of the ancient Egyptians represented in the agri- 
cultural scenes in the tomb discovered by Bruce, the traveller. 
Their legs are long, bodies short, head small, the skin of a 
light copper color, approximated, by the old artists, by a brick- 
colored paint. When making pedestrian excursions to ruins, 
both in Upper and Lower Egypt, very many were passed, 
engaged in their daily farming pursuits ; and it was my cus- 
tom to watch the process of using the hoe, mark their best 



MECHANIC ARTS. 293 

position, and compare them, their tools, and their doings, with 
copies of the ancient delineations. The Arabs, whose ances- 
tors conquered the country, were necessarily obliged to copy the 
agricultural customs of those whom they found in possession. 
The system of irrigation is now just what it always has been ; 
and the ploughing, watering, digging, harvesting, shape and 
use of the only two reliable tools in their possession, are pre- 
sumed never to have materially changed, from the reign of 
Menes, the first monarch, to the subjugation of Egypt by 
Mohammed Ali. 

Green Indian corn, millet, — resembling broom-corn, the 
grains being in tufts, at the top of the stalk, — garden vegeta- 
bles, melons, fresh clover, and many other things, which are 
annual productions of the soil in the temperate zones, are on 
sale, the year round, in Egypt, in places remote from the large 
towns, at prices ridiculously cheap. 

The climate is so bland that, even in the winter season, — 
which is characterized particularly by cold nights, and an occa- 
sional cutting west wind, — children of both sexes go nude as 
Koman statues, in the mud-villages, and most out-of-the-way 
places. 

MECHANIC ARTS. 

There is no native constructiveness in the present races who 
occupy Egypt. All the mechanic arts are in a melancholy 
state of rudeness, without any indications of improvement, not- 
withstanding the specimens of other countries constantly before 
them. They squat on the ground, cross-legged, to pursue any 
mechanical business. I have seen boat-builders, at Syene, sit- 
ting in the sand, hewing a stick of timber, planing boards, bor- 
ing with an auger, making a door, shaving a mast or spar, &c. 
Blacksmiths sit also by the side of an anvil, hammering a 
25=^ 



294 A PILGRIMAGE TO EGYPT. 

heavy bar of iron, making horse-shoes, and manufacturing 
nails, hooks, kettle-bails, and, indeed, all common blacksmith-^ 
ing. Nothing is more common in Cairo than to see 'large 
numbers of stout, muscular men, seated on the lap of mother 
earth, at a turning-lathe, which is not raised more than six 
inches from their own level, turning ; this is effected with a 
long bow, drawn back and forward with the right hand, vv^hile 
the chisel is held by the handle in the left, but guided on the 
rest by being grasped between the great and second toe. They 
are almost as expert as monkeys with their feet. Tinmen sit 
in the same manner ; coppersmiths, too, who are employed by 
hundreds in the cities, — for copper culinary vessels are in uni- 
versal use, — all take the ground level. Weavers sink a hole 
in the floor of their shops, to place the treadles, the only v^^ay 
they can be moved while sitting on the floor. Coopers are 
obliged to stand, unquestionably against their will; but the 
staves are all put into shape while they are in their favorite 
position. All the bakers' ovens are on the same plane with the 
shop floor. In order to get at the mouth without lying flat down, 
they, too, like the weavers, have a hole to step into. In short, 
nobody stands, in Egypt, but slaves and servants. Gentlemen 
have no use for legs, whatever, otherwise than to fasten spurs 
to, when on horseback. They are altogether a superfluity for 
mechanics, as the history of their manipulations clearly shows. 
It is the country, of all others, to which one-legged and no- 
legged people should emigrate. 

Pipe-making is a leading manufacturing interest in all smok- 
ing countries ; consequently, in Egypt, where life is frittered 
away in pufiing at a nargehleh, or long pipe, from infancy to 
extreme old age, it has become an essential branch of profita- 
ble business. Brick-making is another department of domestic 
economy, conducted in the most primitive and awkward man- 



MECHANIC ARTS. 295 

ner. Females are very frequently engaged in the manufac- 
ture, sometimes alone, but more commonly with some of their 
male relatives. The common tenacious earth or mud, near a 
dike, is kneaded with fine straw, with the hands, and pressed 
into a rough wooden mould, one only being made at a time ; 
and they are then placed in rows to dry. Very many are sim- 
ply patted into a brick form, and, like the others, are sun-dried ; 
but, for ordinary purposes of village house-building, walls, &c., 
they are not burned. When laid, a thin solution of mud only 
is required to stick them together. Females not unfrequently 
build a hut in this way, very speedily. The roof is flat, and 
fabricated by laying millet-stalks across, from one side to the 
other, with limbs of the acacia-tree, and other kinds of sticks, 
strewn over with straw, and finished off with a layer of mud. 
Pigeon-houses, even to two stories high, are built in the same 
manner. Mud, to the modern Egyptians, is an indispensable 
necessary. Their houses, floors, grain-bins, ovens, eccaleobians, 
dove-cotes, sakkaies, divans, &c., are all, to an extraordinary 
extent, formed out of this plastic mud. They use it, too, for 
washing their persons, as we do soap. 

A relation of all the comical and outre mechanical contriv- 
ances that are met with in passing through the streets, and 
the absurd processes tenaciously practised in manufacturing 
domestic conveniences, would require many pages. 

At the sugar-works, owned by the sons of Ibrahim Pasha, on 
the west side of the Upper Nile, the machinery is of the very 
first quality ; but it was manufactured in Paris, and is wholly 
controlled by French engineers. At the barrage, or great 
bridge, — that has been sluggishly advancing ever since Abbas 
Pasha commenced reigning, — the great div^ing-bell, capable of 
holding sixty laborers at once, the derricks, boats and tools, 
of the first quality, are also from France, and placed under the 



296 A PILGRIMAGE TO EGYPT. 

especial charge of French and English engineers and masons ; 
still, the natives take no hints from these improved and admir- 
able labor-saving machines, nor attempt improvements of any 
kind. 

Boat-building, as before remarked, is better conducted than 
any other of their mechanical employments. From Atfeh, at 
the head of Mahnioodeeh Canal, to Assuan, boats may be seen, 
every seventy or a hundred miles, on the stocks, in different 
stages of progress, from laying the keel till ready for launch- 
ing. Native timber is extremely scarce. No wood suitable 
for planks ten feet long could be found. From the north of 
Europe the government obtain whatever is required to keep 
the navy in trim ; but most of the craft afloat on the Nile is 
the product of the country, by native artisans. The keel and 
a few long ribs may be of foreign growth. Long planks, which 
serve as a bridge to land upon, from the deck, also come from 
abroad. The crooked limbs of the tamarask and acacia are 
their only timber, in Upper Egypt. The limbs are fitted in 
between the ribs, till they constitute, in some boats, a solid 
wooden wall. The trunks of these trees — of the usual size of 
apple-trees, rarely a foot in diameter — are split into short 
plank, when no others are procurable, and nailed on. Each 
spike-head is wound with tow, and sunk below the common 
level, so as to have no resisting surface. The tow makes a tight 
joint. It is quite incredible what large and strong boats are 
thus produced, from pieces of a few inches in diameter by three 
feet in length. 

RIVER COMMERCE. 

From immemorial time the Nile has been the only outlet to 
the sea from that part of Africa from whence it flows. It was 
no part of my inquiry to ascertain how many tons of merchan- 



A NILE BOAT. 297 

dise, bushels of grain, or the number of dates and slaves were 
annually brought from above, or how many boats ascended with 
merchandise. The river is the public highway, and boats are 
incessantly going and coming. Some are of great capacity, 
and none of them move far without transporting something. 
Nearly six months, in succession, the wind blows from the 
north ; and, towards spring, it changes, and comes pretty uni- 
formly from the south. With the autumnal breeze travellers 
commence their explorations, after the intense heat of summer 
has passed. They could not bear the climate, exposed to the 
scorching action of the sun. Grain is usually carried in bulk. 
Where straw is taken, two boats are lashed together, for the 
purpose of a broad base, not easily capsized. The straw is 
piled very high, and secured by a rope-netting, — it being 
broken into short bits, by being trodden upon by cattle, in 
threshing out the grain. 

There are from four to twelve sailors, besides the reis or cap- 
tain, and cook, to a boat. Ours had twelve, all told. The reis is 
usually a partial owner. The average pay of a hand is two pias- 
tres, or ten cents, a day. A pilot is an important personage, who 
is familiar with the channel, the projecting mud-bars, the swift- 
running currents in straits, &c., who is devoted to the helm, — 
seeming to sleep but little when the wind is favorable. He has 
the wages of a man and a half, or fifteen cents a day. The 
ordinary monthly compensation would not vary essentially from 
three dollars. At night, they lay by the bank, unless there is 
some one on board sufficiently interested in the property or 
passage to hurry and urge the reis to keep on while the breeze 
holds. Their food is, principally, a coarse black bread, made 
of millet-meal and poor flour, baked in small loaves the size of 
a cofFee-cup. Soon after it comes on board, fresh from the 
oven, it is sliced up into thin pieces, and spread to dry, and it 



298 A PILGRIMAGE TO EGYPT. 

speedily becomes hard as brick. Meals are served twice a day. 
The cook takes a sufficient quantity of the bread, puts it soak- 
ing in hot water, and, when softened, boils it with peas ; and, 
when they are dissolved, and smoking hot, the mush is poured 
into a wooden bowl, if they have one, — otherwise, retained in 
the kettle. They have neither knives, forks, spoons nor chop- 
sticks. If there is one of the wooden spoons, common to the 
country, either the cook or reis takes possession of it for the time 
being. Seated round the mess, flat on deck, — the reis and 
all, — each plunges his fingers into the hot hodge-podge, 
and dips out what he can. When procurable, at stopping- 
places, onions are bought by individuals, according to their abil- 
ity, to eat with bread. Turnips and radishes are eaten with a 
gusto, when they have them. They are excessively fond of 
them. Their meal is washed down with water that often looks 
as though it had been dipped from a cart-rut in a bog. Some 
have* a filtering-pot; but that is a luxury which all cannot 
indulge in. Once a day, — in the morning, — the reis has a 
cup of coffee, thick as tar, and black as his own beard, without 
sugar or milk, in a homceopathic quantity, — for half the shell 
of a hen's egg is about equal to the capacity of an Egyptian 
cofiee-cup. Each seaman makes it a point to have a little bag 
of an ounce or two of cofiee, of his own, which he mixes when- 
ever he likes. All coffee in the shops is pounded, in iron mor- 
tars, to an impalpable powder ; and the art of coffee-making, in 
the East, consists in boiling it till it becomes thick, and swal- 
lowing it all before it has time to settle. Meat is never had 
among them, unless presented by a passenger, as backshiesh. 
They are ravenously fond of it. I have seen them devour 
every part of a sheep, even to the intestines, and then trim off 
the ragged parts of the skin, and pull the wool off, and eat them 



FINE ARTS AND ARCHITECTUKE. 299 

also. On board, they always grind their coffee with a long, 
heavy club, endwise. 

The officer and his men eat, chat, smoke and sleep together. 
Some of them have a straw mat, but not always. Stretching 
out at night in their bornouse, — a coarse, loose frock, with 
sleeves, — a watch being set, they sleep in the open air, and 
dream of sweet home in a mud hovel, in which they may have 
from one to four wives, with rings in their noses, a tattooed 
under-lip, red finger-nails, dyed with henna, and fleas enough 
to destroy an elephant in one night. 

FINE ARTS AND ARCHITECTURE. 

No attempts are made, in Egypt, to picture anything on 
earth, above the heavens, or beneath the waters. In the first 
place, no orthodox Mussulman would dare to do what the Koran 
strictly forbids. Neither painting nor sculpture, even of the 
rudest conception, have ever been noticed by me, v/hich were the 
work of the Arabs. I do not remember to have seen a school- 
boy draw the outline of a horse, picture a bird, or amuse him- 
self by sketching human beings, — a common pastime with 
Christian children. They either have no development of the 
organ of imitation, or they are restrained from exercising it, 
through fear. 

All the mosques are of one uniform pattern, varying only in 
size. The minarets are of a fixed, nearly unalterable pat- 
tern. In cities, they are tolerably well-constructed, but mostly 
out of old materials. Both the brick, stone and pillars, may 
have lain in mortar forty times before. With all the beautiful 
specimens of architecture before them, which have given rise to 
whatever is grand in the public edifices of Europe and Amer- 
ica, they have never been influenced, a single iota, by the con- 
templation of them. The best of private dwellings are poor, 



300 A PILGRIMAGE TO EGYPT. 

comparatively, — the second story ordinarily jutting out beyond 
the lower one. Some of the narrow streets are quite dark, even 
in broad day, in consequence of houses on the sides nearly 
meeting at the top. Palaces, and the best class of dwellings, 

— occupied by the pasha and the great officers of government, 

— are generally the workmanship of English, French or Ger- 
man artificers. A new palace is nearly completed at the north- 
west of Cairo, beyond the wall, which has the pleasant aspect 
of a neat three-story private dwelling-house in the country. 
Of the interior finish of that particular class of residences, 1 
have nothing to relate, having had no opportunity to examine 
them. 

Sailing by the small palace on the island of Rhoda, one day, 
the light struck favorably, and we could see a woman looking 
through at us, attracted, perhaps, by our Ingleese costume. 
Whoever wears a hat is, of course, from England or France, — 
the kingdoms with which they are most familiar. 

Whatever is built speedily becomes ruinous, and falls to 
pieces. All the mosques of Cairo are shabby, cracked in the 
walls, doors out of plumb, or windows askew, if of their own 
fabrication. Europeans are the master-workmen in all the new 
edifices, and especially in the great mosque of Mohammed Ali ; 
indeed, everywhere, when elegance and luxury are sought. 
When a generation dies off, the structures they have reared die 
also. Houses in which princes lived tumble down, when they 
are not there to take care of them. Even the tombs of the 
Mameluke kings — intended to be lasting monuments of the 
majesty and resources of those whose mortal remains were to 
repose in them — are rickety, dilapidated, and fast disappear- 
ing. Their attempts at painting the walls of some structures, 
next the street, are barbarous. A favorite color is a dingy red, 
daubed on with an oven broom ; and the nearer it looks like a 



AMUSEMENTS. 301 

chess-board, the better. It is a rarity to meet with a thoroughly- 
built mosque in Egypt. Their appearance is fine at a distance, 
with their tall, slender minarets, painted, but more commonly 
whitewashed. Taken collectively, they are dropping away; 
and might disappear entirely, were they not sometimes repaired. 

AMUSEMENTS. 

Music is one of these, if the horrible din they make with 
tambourines, cymbals, and drums (made by stretching a skin 
over the head of an earthen pot), can be so called. Writers 
have dwelt, with some degree of pleasure, on their national 
airs. These have no more existence, on the Nile, than the 
fine arts. Of all the abominable strains imaginable, from a 
blast in a conch-shell to the braying of an ass, Arabic melody 
is, to me, the most intolerable. The ears of other travellers 
have been more easily gratified than mine, if they have derived 
gratification from their singing or instrumental performances. 
The sailors sing in cadence, and the dancing girls perform to 
strains that would frighten a stage-horse ; but the monotony 
of their favorite airs, and interminable repetition of a jingle 
of words, is positively shocking. Unlike Christian sailors, the 
oarsmen never indulge in obscene sentiments : their songs are 
a melancholy howl, of a religious expression, with very little 
variation. When very much elated with some unlooked-for 
success in the form of backshiesh, they have an extemporaneous 
song for the express occasion. The first rower leads off with 
a line, manufactured instantly, and the others bawl out the 
same, as a chorus. Thus Alick, the best of our crew, would 
yell, 

*' 0, where is tlie fair girl with a ring in her nose ? " 

Eight stout fellows, not one of them with a note of music in 

his voice, would shout together, 
26 



302 A PILGRIMAGE TO EGYPT. 

" 0, where is the fair girl with a ring in her nose ? " 

Alick would take breath, while his companions were exploding, 
and, at the last sound, would construct another line : 

" If I had flowers of gold, I 'd put them in her hand." 

All at once they would commence again the first stanza : 

*' 0, where is the Mr girl with a ring in her nose ? " 

and repeat it by the hour together. This translation is far 
from being elegant, but it was the best to be had, at the time, 
from the dragoman. To a poor, half-clad boatman, whose 
imagination is as active as a pasha's, and who has never .seen 
anything more captivating, as an auxiliary to Nubian female 
charms, than a brass hoop in the right wing of the nose, a song 
of this character awakens exhilarating emotions quite incom- 
prehensible to gentlemen who think a nose without a ring is 
preferable. 

As we stepped into the boat, above the first cataract, to be 
conveyed to the ruins on the island of PhilsD, the crew appeared 
particularly delighted at securing the job, which several boats 
were trying to obtain. One of them raised the American flag, 
we had brought, on a pole at the stern ; but the stripes struck 
him as something new ; and, being told that it was the sand- 
jack of the nation to which we belonged, in the New World, 
he commenced an extemporaneous song, that did not create 
much enthusiasm, for the reason that he had had no backshiesh. 

One beautiful moonlight evening, when the reis was puffing 
some of his longest whifFs, and myself and companions were 
seated on the canteen, contemplating the strangeness of our 
position on the mysterious Nile, and glimpses were now and 
then had of mud habita.tions in one direction, and colossal 
ruins of dwellings reared for the gods, in others, and all hands 



TAMBOURINES. 305 

were quietly tugging at the oar, the leader commenced singing, 
in one bar, 

*' Pray to Mohammed, pray to Mohammed; " 

which the rest swelled into an awful peal of human noise, as 
the words died away upon the thick lips of Alick. An Amer- 
ican on board, who makes no pretensions to skill in poetical 
efforts, gave the sentiment the following form : 

*' The kanjia glides so freely down the pleasant stream. 
It 's like a houri's vision, in a summer dream ; 
And those who would enjoy it, all beautiful and bright, 
Should bow their heads to Mecca, our source of hope and light. 
Then kneel to Mohammed, our Mussulman crew, 
And pray for soft breezes and light-falling dew ; 
May the smiles of the Prophet, the glory of day. 
Be the bounty of him who in meekness shall pray ! 

" The crescent is waving on the banner so high. 
While the mosque, with its minarets, points to the sky ; 
'T is the paradise where all the faithful shall rest ; 
Then pray to Mohammed; pray to be blest ! " 

Frequently, when I have been strolling in the great square, 
in front of the citadel, in Cairo, I have witnessed the perform- 
ance of musicians on the zummarah, and an analogous wind 
instrument. They are awfully harsh, without a single redeem- 
ing note. A tambourine is the universal accompaniment to all 
music, and even to singing, without music. A performer will 
sing by the half-hour together, shaking and rattling the semi- 
bells, as though he depended upon it to knock the sentiments 
he was uttering into the stupid noddles of his auditors. Earth- 
en pot drums are in repute throughout Egypt, by all the lower 
classes. A perpetual thump, thump, is heard in some part of 
every village. Marriages, feasts of circumcision, and glorifica-. 
26^ 



306 A PILGRIMAGE TO EGYPT. 

tions of all descriptions, are heightened with a darabukker. 
Near my lodgings in Cairo, a few rods from the public treasury, 
one of those tom-toms was a source of vexation, from appar- 
ently never being at rest. Ev^ery one can perform upon it, 
whether he has music in his soul or not ; and, what is quite 
remarkable, it is such a general favorite, that the thump upon 
the elastic head by any fist proves equally exciting, and those 
who have leisure to listen simultaneously commence beating 
time, by clapping their hands synchronously. It is for sale 
in various places, to meet this universal demand, where it 
would otherwise be quite out of place ; upon the same prin- 
ciple that all orders of shop-keepers keep quack medicines, in 
the United States, because we are a quack medicine taking 
people. Whole stands are occupied by pedlers, in the streets 
and highways, with nothing but these drums, of various sizes, 
finish and cost, down to petite darabukkehs, not larger than an 
alderman's thumb, for children. The national taste, therefore, is 
formed in childhood, and remains predominant in after life. All 
boats have these drums on board, where they can be afforded ; 
and, in passing on the river, the crews strike up an awful noise 
of voice and tom-tom combined. Our crew up the river peti- 
tioned for one most earnestly, and the case was pleaded in 
their behalf by Hassan, who said, among other arguments 
adduced in support of their claim, " dat alLgentlemen give um 
one. Den, when de wind is good, dey feel good, too, and make 
sing; very nice, indeed, — tibe." So we were persuaded, and 
purchased one, which, before the expiration of ten days, we 
wished in the bottom of the Dead Sea. 

Wherever I have seen the dancing girls, they were invaria- 
bly accompanied by an old man, and sometimes two, perform- 
ers on the kemenger, besides a tambourine player. 

In coffee-shops, in tents, about the neighborhood of the Frank 



DANCING GIRLS. 807 

street, in Cairo, a nay player may be heard occasionally. 
Without attempting a detail of the minute finish of this instru- 




ment, we assure the reader that it looks much like a flute, 
and gives out a soft sound, by blowing in at the end, at an 
angle with the mouth. In the mosques of the whirling der- 
vishes it is presumed to be common, its sound being always 
recognized in the noise that is raised while they are spinning 
round the floor. I heard the same instrument played for the 
dervishes at Pera, in Constantinople, and, for the first time, 
tliQre was a slight degree of melody in the sound. 

Danci?ig Girls. — They are called Ghawazee, in the lan- 
guage of the country. Some are quite tall, and others are 
remarkably short. They bear a striking resemblance to the 
gypsies I have seen in England. Several whom I saw perform 
in Upper Egypt bore a striking likeness to Malays. Their 
dress was of a light material ; thin, too, — scarcely concealing 
their persons. Of all the common people seen, they were 



808 A PILGRIMAGE TO EGYPT. 

decidedly the best looking. Theoretically, they were driven, 
in 1834, from Cairo, on account of the looseness of their morals, 
into exile, up the river ; but they are numerous there, yet, and 
perform, by special request, at houses where there is no danger 
of calling down the offended majesty of the law. Italian 
women, and, perhaps, some of the native females, derive some 
gain by keeping apartments for them. Wherever a town is 
reconnoitred, in the poorest, shabbiest huts, on the outskirts, 
they have their homes. Different from all other females, their 
faces are never covered ; their dress is of a light rose-color, a 
delicate yellow, or an equally soft blue. Their foreheads are 
frequently covered by pieces of Turkish gold coin, suspended 
in strings, one below another. They are stockingless, but 
wear red morocco shoes, stiff and hard. They come down to 
the bank, near where the traveller's boat is moored, and dance 
with might and main, unsolicited, with a hope of backshiesh. 
Their belts are strung with trinkets, such as small silver 
triangles, or little bells; and all have metallic castanets in 
each hand. Stripping off their shoes, when the music begins, 
their hips suddenly rise up, their bodies sway either way, 
their toes cramp info the sand, or to the floor, — wherever 
they happen to be, — while their countenances assume an ear- 
nestness of expression ; the furor increases, the features become 
impassioned, the castanets click, and thus they pass from one 
degree of excitement to another, till, quite exhausted with the 
intense action of every muscle in their frames, the exhibition 
closes, with a round of applause. Viewed in the most indul- 
gent manner, their performances are grossly indecent. In 
some towns I have seen them sitting in the bazaars, dressed 
in their peculiar style, and in front of barbers' shops, where 
stranger Arabs go, to get their heads shaven. From very 
early life they are trained to the profession. 



DANCING GIRLS. 



309 



Returning late, on a certain evening, to the boat, from an 
excursion to Thebes, we found a very old man playing the 
kemengeh, while a pretty little girl, not more than eight or ten 
years of age, dressed out in the true Ghawazee costume, rattles 
and castanets, was performing with characteristic lascivious ges- 
ticulation. Such is the fascination of these extremely gross 
shows, that they are frequently hired to amuse the ladies in 




DAifCING GIELS. 



harems ; but a method of economizing is to have the dance in 
the court, where the men can enjoy the entertainment, and the 
ladies of the establishment also, by peering through the lattice, 
— for men and women are never in society together. In fact, 



310 A PILGRIMAGE TO EGYPT. 

there is no society in Mahommedan countries. These Ghawazee 
pride themselves on being descended from the Barmakees, 
referred to in the Arabian Nights. It is not advisable to write 
all that might be written illustrative of the course of life they 
pursue, and that of their ancestors before them, for more than 
thirty centuries. It appears, from monumental record, they 
danced in Egypt long before the children of Israel made their 
exit, precisely as they did in my presence ; for, in the old tomb 
paintings, are representations of dancing-girls at entertainments, 
performing to the accompaniments of instruments, who were, if 
possible, more depraved than they are now commonly supposed 
to be, as they danced in a nude condition. To show that 
they are unchanged, and that the peculiarity of the dance and 
its corrupting tendencies are precisely what they ever were in 
the worst period of ancient Egyptian heathenism, it is only 
necessary to declare that I witnessed the performance of two 
of these dancers, who, in the midst of their exaltation, actually 
threw off their only covering, and continued the remainder of 
their performance absolutely naked. 

Circles of pantaloonless Arabs, boys of all ages, and vulgar 
females, — veiled, of course, — with strangers in hats, caps, and 
tarbousches and frocks, are met with, in which one or two 
natives are singing. To me, there was not even an approach 
to harmony. Certainly, had there been a regularly-defined 
tune, I must have detected it ; but, shocking as it was, the 
crowd were invariably entranced both by the sentiment and air. 
Sometimes it struck me there was a recitative, — a whining 
dialogue. Had their voices been distinguished for softness, 
clearness, or volume, the nature of the effect on the groups would 
have been understood better; but a blow on a cracked kettle 
would have been just as musical. Standing on tiptoe, one 
morning, to distinguish, over the heads of those in the com- 



SMOKERS. 311 

pact phalanx before me, the words the singers articulated, 
a Syrian dragoman, whom I knew, observed that it was very 
good. This observation prompted me to ask what he meant : 
Was it the air or the poetry that gratified him ? " Both," he 
quickly replied; "our peoples is very fond of dese moosic." 
Afterwards, .watching the varying expression of Ibrahim's face, 
rather than the " moosic," and quickly discovering that it elated 
him very perceptibly, he was questioned again. He told me 
that the song, or, rather, the stanzas, were composed as they 
sang, the subject being a beautiful^slave and gold, — jhe only 
two things worth living for, in an Araih's- estimation. J„ Plays 
are enacted, also, in the streets, or, rather, open spaces near the 
most travelled thoroughfares -, but they are too childish, tame 
and insipid, to be worth analyzing. 

Coffee-houses are the resorts of idlers, where professed story- 
tellers resort to gain an honest penny. From all aocounts, it 
must be a low amusement ; for the listeners could not appre- 
ciate a noble sentiment or a patriotic burst of enthusiasm. 
Whatever is retailed to the smokers must be brought down 
to the debased level of their moral feelings. It is flimsy 
stuff, at best, if my information is correct. In pursuit of an 
opium-smoking shop, a hope was indulged that I might light 
upon one of the retailers of extravagant stories ; but not one 
came under my cognizance. I have a distinct recollection of 
passing near a place where a number of sober, bushy-bearded 
Arabs were smoking extract of Indian hemp, which produced 
results altogether extraordinary. Without a word being said, 
one would suddenly commence laughing, till the tears rolled 
down his cheeks ; then another would follow, and another, till 
a person, unacquainted with the peculiar effects of the drug, 
would suppose that their obstreperous mirth was the result of 
a deep and keen perception of something excessively ridiculous. 



812 A PILGRIMAGE TO EGYPT. 

Their ecstatic visions, while the brain is acted upon by this most 
remarkable of all articles on the nervous system, far exceed 
those produced by opium. 

EDUCATION. 

Of the literature of modern Egypt, my researches have been 
far too limited to justify me in advancing an opinion. It is 
admitted, however, by those who should know, that there is 
none. Men of political distinction cannot write their names ; 
and many, in official stations, wear monstrosities, in the shape 
of rings, on their fingers, bearing a seal, with which they sign 
documents, by first rubbing some thick black ink on it with the 
end of a finger, and then pressing on the paper. Some appear 
to act as though it were beneath them to read or write, it being 
the office of slaves to use books. This must be a remnant of 
old Mameluke times, when the great men were ignorant of 
those accomplishments, and made it fashionable to discard their 
cultivation. It cannot be so at this late day, since the discov- 
ery has been made by them, in their intercourse with howadjis, 
that knowledge is power. I have frequently seen Turkish offi- 
cers impress their signet-ring, but could not ascertain whether 
they could read or not. Such persons have their secretaries, 
who are generally Armenians, Jews, Syrians, and Copts. Those 
who can write — and, judging from the number of those who 
carry writing apparatus, they are numerous in the busy parts 
of the cities — have a heavy brass or silver ink-box, stack in 
their silk girdles. No doubt some carry it for show, as an 
essential fixture of a business man. I never saw any book read 
but the Koran, and that in a mosque. There, the pious investi- 
gator of the truth announced, by the see-sawing motion of his 
body, and loud intonation of his voice, that he cared for nobody. 
Sometimes, in ranging through the bazaars, persons may be 



SCHOOLS. 313 

seen casting up accounts; but reading-, as a purely mental 
exercise, for pleasure or improvement, is presumed to be an 
unknown exercise. 

There are so called colleges of dervishes; but the word 
rendered college, in the Arabic, to my understanding, does not 
convey the idea of a school of literature, but a peculiar sect of 
Mussulmans, who conceive that whirling round, like a teetotum, 
till they are unconscious, brings them into intimate spiritual 
communion with the prophet ; and their institution, therefore, 
is for maintaining the purity of their faith, and the practice of 
these gyrations, and the prayers which distinguish the sect. 
But the idea of study for improvement, by the assistance of 
other minds, through books, is absurd : the Koran, the book of 
books, contains all they wish to know of earth or heaven. 

Schools for the primary instruction of youth are compara- 
tively modern inventions. They are established in Alexandria, 
Cairo, Ekhmin, and other large towns. Wherever they are 
located, they would be considered an outrageous nuisance, in any 
country but Egypt. Such is the uproar that bedlam would as 
soon be suspected a place of learning, by a stranger, as one of 
those nurseries of the immortal mind. All the scholars are boys ; 
girls are of no account, and therefore never have a thought be- 
stowed upon them in regard to education. A shrewd observer, 
who was every inch a Turk, said, if they were taught to write, 
they would be intriguing ; and it was better, therefore, that they 
should never know anything beyond the door of the harem, 
for which they were destined by nature and custom. Chil- 
dren, large and small, at school, sit flat on the floor, — as their 
superiors in age do, of a larger growth, — without a stool, chair, 
table, desk, or a support for the back. There is no kind of 
furniture in the room. Usually, the school is on the first floor, 
on the street, the door being open, and the whole system 



314 



A PILGRIMAGE TO EGYPT. 



exposed to the gaze of the passers-by. Many of the teachers 
are stone blind. I remember of watching the discipline of a 
school, in Alexandria, which was a model one in some respects, 
because the boys screamed the loudest, and the master had a 
good ear and industrious habits. Although blind, he was braid- 
ing mats continually ; and, when the whole school read extracts 
from the Koran, at the top of their voices, all at once, the 
acuteness of his ear was sufficient to detect a mistake among 
nearly forty as mischievous little urchins as were ever sent to 
worry a pedagogue. A board, a little less than a foot square, 
is held in the left hand, and resting in the lap, by some, who 
write what they are directed, from the Koran. They are equiv- 
alent to slates. The handwriting is large, and distinctly drawn. 
They learn the alphabet in the same manner. 




Of the higher systems of instruction, principally in the hands 
of the priesthood, — if there is one, — and persons who are in 
connection with the mosques, no reliable information has been 
collected. 

While strolling towards the harbor, one day, in a back street 
of Alexandria, I came to a school-room, the floor of which was 



PUNISHMENT OF A SCHOOL-BOY. 315 

rather below the grade of the street. A large boy sat in front 
of the master, reeling to and fro while reciting from memory, 
and crying bitterly at the same time, which particularly 
caught my attention. I therefore stood watching him. The 
retention of the lad's memory was perfectly surprising. He 
neither hesitated, stammered, nor omitted a word ; still the big 
tears rolled down his ruddy cheeks. I became impatient to 
ascertain the cause. When the recitation came to an end, the 
master seized him by the collar, back of his neck, with the 
ferocity of a tiger, and jerked him on his face. The boy strug- 
gled, as though it were for life. At the same moment, a stal- 
wart Arab, from a remote corner, flew to the spot, and seized the 
legs of the resisting prisoner, — bringing with him a stick the 
size of his wrist, strung with two cords. As it fell on the floor, 
it bore some resemblance to an ox-yoke, — the cords entering 
by both ends, like the bows. I saw the object was to put the 
culprit's ankles into the loops, draw one end, and thus hold both 
feet in a vice. The violence of the struggle, and the savage 
determination of the two men, was exciting in the highest 
degree, — all my sympathies being roused in behalf of the 
resisting child. They had not fairly subdued him, when one 
of them happened to raise his eyes, and, for the first time, saw 
me. He let go his hold, and slunk back, muttering something, 
it was presumed, about hated Frank. All three were afraid, per- 
^lapsT^T^e evil eye. The urchin was quickly on his feet, and 
walked to his place. I remained a while longer, with a spir- 
ited determination to give them the full influence of a stare. 
This incident led me to believe that infractions of the teacher's 
laws are severely punished by the bastinado. The instrument 
for binding the feet was precisely like one which we saw in one 
of the courts. Blows are the evidence of power in this country; 
and those who deal out the most of them are the most feared. 



316 A PILGRIMAGE TO EGYPT. 



SCIENCE. 



Whether there is any attention given to the sciences by the 
natives, remains to be discovered. Medicine and surgery, on 
the score of economy, w^ere considered worth fostering by 
Mohammed Ali, who instituted a medical school, for the edu- 
cation of surgeons for the army and navy. Their religious 
horror of a dead body was overcome by the viceroy, who could 
conquer all scruples with a bastinado. He had in his service 
a French surgeon, known to fame as Clot Bey, who, being a 
favorite, was liberally indulged in carrying out plans which 
secured his own name from perishing, while they brought about 
a great revolution in the public sentiment. When his school 
of medicine was ready, the pasha had intelligent boys placed 
there, whether they wished to be surgeons or not. Their first 
lessons were in reading their own language ; and, by degrees, 
they heard lectures on anatomy and surgery, then dissected, 
&c., till a surgeon was wanted by government. The best on the 
catalogue was always taken for this purpose, and thus a large 
body of native surgeons was created. They never acquired a 
knowledge of the French language ; consequently, each lecture 
was translated into Arabic, before they comprehended its char- 
acter. A few of them were sent to Paris, with a view, if pos- 
sible, of rearing up a body of professors ; but the viceroy never 
realized his expectations from these. There is nothing in the 
Arabs susceptible of being improved by European academies. 
On their return, though they might have acquired the French 
dialect, they had no more science than before. Not a single 
instance is recorded of brilliant success on the part of these 
beneficiaries. During their pupilage, they are fed, clothed 
and have a regular monthly income. 

There are several military hospitals on the river, for seamen 



MEDICINE. 317 

and disabled troops, in which native surgeons are assistants ; 
but I know of no institution in which any one is intrusted with 
discretionary power. English physicians and surgeons, who 
happen to be established near any of those establishments, are 
invariably placed at the head of them. 

The medical school is now controlled principally by a few 
German medical gentlemen, who came into favor with the 
pasha as the French party walked out. The last was in the 
ascendant from the organization of the government under Mo- 
hammed Ali to the day of his death, when a new ruler suc- 
ceeded, who had new aspirations, new objects of ambition, and 
old personal grudges. Clot Bey was obliged to retire ; but he 
has had no successor who has accomplished anything for sci- 
ence or humanity. One or two French books on medical sci- 
ence were translated into Arabic, while Clot Bey was in the 
meridian of his activity. All that native practitioners know 
of the diseases peculiar to Eg}^pt is from foreigners. 

There are Arabic hakems, who have had no intercourse with 
the new teachers, and who practise, it is concluded, as their 
predecessors did, by the agency of incantations, charms, and 
other nonsense, which, to the ignorant sufferers who seek their 
assistance, is of a solemn character. My interview with one 
of this order is mentioned, in the diary, at Thebes. 

MERCANTILE LIFE. \/ 
Egypt has necessarily been a trading country, from its geo- 
graphical position, and geological organization. There are two 
classes of merchants here, as everywhere else ; namely, the cap- 
italists, who pursue a species of wholesaling, and others, who deal 
on a smaller scale. Grain, slaves, cotton and dates, constitute 
the bulk of the river commerce. To carry on business, there- 
fore, through the whole country, far into the regions beyond 
27=^ 



318 A PILGRIMAGE TO EGYPT. 

the control of the government, merchants from the interior of 
Africa must bring to the Egyptian market products which 
Egyptians are not permitted to go for themselves. Thus, 
ivory, ostriches, curious varieties of hard wood, monkeys and 
dates, are brought immense distances, from places quite un- 
known to modern travellers, except by name. They come 
down over the two upper cataracts, with their property, and 
occasionally still lower down, to Assuan, where an exchange 
is made, for such articles as may be in demand where they 
belong. 

■ Assuan is the first slave-market in Egypt. All slaves intro- 
duced into the country from the interior of Africa come down 
the Nile, and, on arriving there, a registration is made, and a 
duty required to be paid on each, — already referred to, — before 
they can be forwarded to Cairo. The revenue from that one 
source is very considerable. I have seen Dongola and Darfoor 
boats, with slaves from beyond those countries. It was at 
Assuan I had an interview with the Abyssinian merchant, 
mentioned in the diary, who had never heard of America ; and 
yet he was a man of intelligence, of eager curiosity, and gen- 
tlemanly address. To him Cairo was the centre of the uni- 
verse, the great capital of the commercial world. 

One evening, while seated in a circle of smoking, caravan 
Arabs, in the desert of Arabia, one of them withdrew his pipe, 
spun out a mouthful of smoke, in a fine-drawn wire, and asked 
me if people wore such things on their heads, in my country, 
as was then on mine, — a common black hat. Next he inquired 
the cost of it. The price — five dollars — astonished him ; he 
thought it monstrously dear, and quite objectionable, because 
it was so stiff', hard to the head, unyielding, and like an iron 
pot. He next inquired if I had ever seen a town as large as 
Cairo. A dot was made in the sand, with my finger, to repre- 



BAZAARS. 319 

sent that city, and then a circle drawn, about a foot in diam- 
eter, which stood for London. It was represented that one 
city bore the same relation to the other that the finger-point 
did to the circle. As Cairo has not far from two hundred thou- 
sand inhabitants, and London over two millions, he was given 
to understand the comparison was not out of the way. But he 
and his associates shook their heads, with an air of incredulity ; 
they evidently entertained their original opinion, that Cairo 
was unequalled for beauty, wealth, population and power. 

Bazaars are stores. One street is exclusively appropriated 
to those dealing in certain articles, and another to others, and 
thus through all the shades of trade. Retail shops vary from 
four feet square to ten by twenty, — very rarely larger; but the 
majority are mere boxes, into which the proprietor can back, 
when his goods are properly stowed. If filled with calicoes, 
cotton cloth, and such like materials, the owner sits, cross- 
legged, in the doorway, smoking. Customers cannot enter, if 
they would, into many of them ; and, to save them the trouble, 
the pieces they ask for are handed down, even without rising. 
I have seen many of those energetic capitalists fast asleep, in 
passing along by their dens ; but they seldom, if ever, lose any- 
thing by theft, which is a rare ofience ; and, consequently, 
their property is perfectly safe, however long Morpheus holds 
them captive. Grocers, with a mixed assortment, manage dif- 
ferently, as they are obliged to move to a tap one way, a can- 
dle-box in another, etc. Those who trade altogether in coffee, 
soap, fuel, cloths, trunks, pipes, ink, saddlery, tarbousches, 
pistols, swords, shoes, &c., remain as firm as an oak, and sim- 
ply reach the particular thing that is demanded. They urge 
no trade, waste no breath in praising the quality, and re-com- 
mence smoking when the prospect of a bargain disappears. 
Their prices are generally high in proportion to the quality. 



820 A PILGRIMAGE TO EGYPT. 

Hardware — such as knives, gimblets, chisels, hoes, &c., 
which are approved by the mechanics, needles, scissors, thim- 
bles, &c., for the females — is of the poorest description, but 
quite as good for customers as that of a better quality, because, 
such is the scarcity of money among the people, they could not 
pay more than they already do. 

On what might appropriately be termed the Exchange, 
where the wholesaling is conducted, business is managed in 
this wise. Grave, portly, big-bearded personages, with large 
turbans, of variegated colors, and smoking long pipes, with dig- 
nified moderation, are seated in the dry dust, — some on mats, 
and others on the bare terra firma, — with samples by their sides, 
on mats. When I have been among them, there appeared to 
be a slack time ; few were buying. These observations apply 
particularly to grain-venders, who, after all, are the principal 
merchants, as grain is the essential staple of the country, and 
the only production, on a large scale, to trade upon, for export- 
ation. Egypt has been very celebrated, from the day when 
Joseph's brethren came from Palestine to buy corn, for its 
abundant and prolific yield of breadstuffs. 

Some of the mounds of grain near Boulac, standing without 
any covering, are truly enormous. It is not hazarding too 
much to assume that five thousand bushels may be in one of 
those heaps. Up at Old Cairo, and at the ferry of Geezeh, on 
the pyramid side of the Nile, the piles of millet, beans, wheat, 
and other grains, are amazing for magnitude. Those of the 
largest grade belong to the government, collected, on the 
monopoly system, from the farmers ; but the batches under the 
keeping of individuals are in the line of legitimate trade. If 
all the merchants on 'Change, in Boston or New York, at the 
usual hour of assembling, were seated, belter skelter, on the 
pavements, dressed with scarfs round their heads, instead of 



LAWS. 321 

steeple hats, and amber pipe-stems in their mouths, with speci- 
mens of their magazines before them, on fire-rugs and straw 
matting, all silent as death, — not a word being articulated, — 
while the smoke of their chibouques rolled in graceful curls up 
to the heavens, some conception might be formed of the appear- 
ance which the first-class merchants make in certain localities 
in and about the metropolitan city of Egypt. 

Brokers are too numerous ; and a rascally set of knaves and 
oily villains they are. Exchanging money is a leading busi- 
ness, both in Cairo and Alexandria. I have never seen them 
in any other towns. Usually, they have a small niche, as it 
were, — a mere door, in the side of a house, — deep enough to 
receive their iron or wooden safe. A small table, an open 
drawer, or the top of a chest, is the counting-room of some. 
Scales, money-tables, with all the appliances for cheating, in 
the politest manner, whenever adventurers get within their 
magic circle, are near at hand. Jews and Greeks appear to 
monopolize money affairs exclusively, at Alexandria, with the 
exception of a few regular English houses, with which com- 
mercial transactions on a large scale are conducted. In Cairo, 
the number of persons sitting at money-boxes quite takes a 
stranger by surprise. How they can all be supported is a prob- 
lem. 

LAWS. 

The pasha is, nominally, a vassal of the Sultan of Turkey. 
His will is the law, let it be ever so whimsical or unrighteous. 
From the vice-regal throne down to the people, there are certain 
tribunals for the dispensation of justice, having cognizance of 
offences against government and society, which are orderly, and 
recognized as the fountains of law. How or where these courts 
obtained their authority, is unknown to me ; nor could I satisfy 
myself when their labors commenced or ended, or whether there 



322 A PILGEIMAGE TO EGYPT. 

were specific periods for sessions, or whether they were perpet- 
ually in session. 

Cairo, being divided into eight wards, has a sheik over each, 
residing within his jurisdiction, who settles trifling misunder- 
standings between parties, and keeps a general oversight of the 
inmates of each house. 

The patriarch of the Copts oversees his particular sect, and, 
as far as he can, maintains the peace. 

Each trade and profession has its sheik, to whom reference 
is made in their quarrels and jealousies. When the influence 
of these officers is not sufficient, then an appeal to higher 
authority is before them ; or, rather, the offenders are sent 
there. Who commissions these several sheiks, was a question 
not answered. It is quite probable that they are appointed by 
the minister of the interior or home department. 

With all the revolutions Egypt has undergone since taken 
by the Arabs, it is a little curious that the system of police gov- 
ernment they instituted for the control of the demi-savages, — 
their own people, — has not been essentially modified since. 
Whoever has had the supreme command has discovered that 
the old organization for towns and villages is better than any 
system they could propose ; and, therefore, few, if any, altera- 
tions were made, even by Mohammed Ali. 

The pasha, on coming into power, chooses men known for 
their capacity and judgment, to constitute the council of state 
deliberations^ whom he, of course, sways as he pleases. They 
would not dare act contrary to his wishes. At the citadel, is a 
court called ed Deewin el Khideewee, where the pasha is theo- 
retically presiding in person, though a deputy invariably sits on 
the bench. It adjudicates in cases where the kadi is doubtful, if 
such can occur ; and bribes turn the suit either way, accord 



COURT OE THE KALI. 323 

ing fo the quantity of money proffered for a favorable decision, 
by the respective parties. 

The court of the kadi is a*dignified appendage of the govern- 
ment in name only, because the corruptions that are practised 
in it are notorious. A new kadi is appointed annually, at 
Constantinople, who comes to Egy^pt a stranger, sometimes 
even without a knowledge of the language. When the new 
judge arrives, the old one returns. In the single year, he con- 
trives to provide for his future necessities. 

The kadi is said to buy the office. No one cares whether 
he knows anything of the principles of law at home or abroad ; 
the only pre-requisites being these, namely, the applicant must 
be a person of intelligence, a Turk by birth, and of a sect 
termed Hanafees. The court is called the place of judgment. 
The kadi in Cairo has little or no interest in his tribunal, 
beyond securing his fees, regulated by custom, and getting as 
much more as possible ; for the term of service is short, and he 
therefore cuts deeply into any and all property within his reach. 
A deputy transacts the principal business, while his principal 
pockets the money. 

Litigants rely upon the interpreter to give the right turn to 
their cases ; and, of course, he, too, dips into the passing dish. 
Through his fingers the bribes pass with peculiar facility, — he 
translating precisely to suit his own interest; and no one 
expects redress, if the decision is against him. 

A Christian is not permitted to testify against a Moham- 
medan. The party losing the case pays all the cost. Two per 
cent, is the fee of the kadi, in suits where real estate is at stake 
which is held by individuals in the cities. In cases where there 
is no land, he fixes the fees as he likes; and then each officer of 
the court must have backshiesh out of the property of the 
unfortunate fellows who eet within their grasp. There is 



324 A PILGRIMAGE TO EGYPT. 

plenty of law, but no justice. When both parties pay liberal 
bribes to the court, each presuming the other ignorant of the 
measures of his opponent, the case*is immensely prolonged, till 
their means are sometimes exhausted, when a decision is forth- 
with announced. Jury trials are unknown. On another page 
I have narrated an interview with the judge of this great court, 
and acknowledged his civilities. 

At Alexandria I went, with a dragoman, to the court equiv- 
alent to a common police tribunal, which was in an old building 
near the ancient harbor, having one large, rough room on the 
first floor, divided by a partition rising a few feet from the 
floor, allowing a free view over the whole apartment. Within 
one enclosure sat a clerk, and in the other, on a wooden bench, 
a fine-looking, intelligent Turk, apparently less than forty years 
of age. Near by, was another divan, on which were two large, 
full-faced, sober, big-bodied Turks, smoking. The first was a 
military colonel, the acting judge, and the others his advisers. 
On a raised platform was the ox-yoke machine for holding 
offenders by the ankles, for inflicting the bastinado. Policemen 
were in attendance, while overseeing matters and things in 
general was a very respectably-dressed, fair specimen of a man, 
armed with an immense raw-hide whip, mounted with silver 
ferrules, the badge of authority. 

The dragoman went with some reluctance; but 1 insisted, 
and we entered together, while a witness was testifying. My 
dress, probably, caught the attention of the judge, who sent the 
great man with the whip to inquire what was wanted. Officers, 
witnesses, and the criminal trembling before his honor, all con- 
centrated a gaze upon us. Through Moosa, it was simply 
stated that my curiosity had prompted me to call to witness 
the processes of justice. All this being translated, the judge 
begged me to be seated, and had something provided for me to 



VISIT TO A COURT AT ALEXANDRIA. 325 

sit upon. He next asked from what country I hailed. When 
America was named, he expressed some admiration that curi- 
osity alone had induced a person to travel so far. I was then 
politely urged to put on my hat, as everybody kept on their 
tarbousches and turbans ; but I told him it was not customary 
to remain covered, in presence of a presiding magistrate, in my 
country, and I felt bound to render the same token of respect 
to those before whom I then stood. This observation brought 
forth a profound salaam from all three of the judges. Reach- 
ing up overhead, he took from a shelf a box, in which were a 
few cigars. Examining one or two, he selected a good one, 
which was sent, by the marshal, to me, while he charged up 
a pipe for himself. All this time, the transactions of the court 
were suspended. 

Directly, a policeman marched up with a little tiny cup of 
coffee, in a silver case, with another for Moosa, — thick, black 
and strong, without sugar or milk. When that was disposed 
of, and many questions answered, — for the judge manifested 
some curiosity, as well as myself, — business was resumed. 

The case before their honors was this : A man had married 
a new wife, — a very inferior specimen of womanhood she was, 
too, — who had taken possession of the vast sum of five hundred 
piastres, which she found in the house, the property of two sons 
by a former wife. All attempts to repossess himself of the money 
having failed, the husband entered a complaint, and had her 
brought to the bar. Both of them made their tongues go like 
a mill-clack, as much freedom being permitted as they could 
have asked for, in making a plea. After listening a while, the 
judge articulated a few sentences, and the court was cleared. 
Moosa informed me that the judge considered the affair of 
sufficient importance to send it up to the court of the kadi. 

Subsequently, it occurred to me to inquire of Moosa how the 
28 



326 A PILGEIMAGE TO EGYPT. 

woman would be punished, in the event of losing the case. 
" Why," said he, " de judge vill shut her up in de room, and 
squeeze her, and by and by de money come." But, if she has 
spent or squandered it away, how will squeezing bring it back ? 
again was a question. It was explained in this way : that, as 
females were not punished by blows, as men were, by imprison- 
ing her, some one of her relations, or several of them, would 
club together and raise the money for her liberation. The 
confinement, therefore, was rendered squeezing^ in English. 

Capital punishment, from all I could learn, is abolished in 
Egypt. Females are, unquestionably, destroyed, occasionally, 
by those who control their destiny as property ; but the pasha, 
I was assured, has not permitted a man to be put to death since 
he came into office. Just before the arrival of his mother at 
the place where the pilgrims assemble in the desert, to arrange 
for an impressive entrance into the city, it was reported that 
the great lady witnessed some misconduct in an officer of her 
retinue, which cost him his life, without ceremony. 

Those convicted of atrocious crimes — which, to the honor 
of the country, are very few — are sent to the gold mines, on 
the White Nile, — a locality not well defined, where they rarely 
live more than a year. Murder is seldom committed; but 
when there is a conviction, the prisoner, with his whole family, 
are positively exiled, without the hope of mercy. 

Just at daylight, one morning, the confusion in the consular 
square, near my window, was so uncommon as to induce me to 
dress and go out. It turned out that a Maltese sailor had 
assassinated a man. On the way, to the lock-up, — having 
previously been at the door of the British consul, — he attempted 
to escape, but unsuccessfully. The crowd hoped he would be 
immediately taken away, for they wanted no murderers in 
Egypt. 



CRIMES. 327 

The government takes no notice of the crimes of foreigners, 
except to apprehend criminals, and pass them over to the repre- 
sentatives of their government. 

There are no drunkards in Egypt among the native inhab- 
itants. None but foreigners, from Christian nations, are ever 
intoxicated. It is a vice which a Moslem despises and loathes. 
Many crimes which disgrace humanity in civilized commu- 
nities, and keep police courts and higher tribunals, even in 
our own country, fully occupied, are unknown among Moham- 
medans. These people certainly commit crimes against their 
own laws ; but they are very different, in their general char- 
acter, from those with which we are most familiar, and it is 
susceptible of demonstration that more crimes against the peace 
and dignity of the commonwealth are committed, in a single 
week, in any of the cities of the United States or Great Brit- 
ain, among a given number of inhabitants, than in all Egypt in 
a month. 

Hardly any crime can be mentioned which is not punished 
by the bastinado, on conviction ; and a horrible punishment 
it is. The moment the judge decides that the offence of the 
accused is to be expiated by blows, the criminal is thrown 
upon his face, in the court-room, and fastened in a machine 
which confines him in that position, with the soles of his feet 
turned up, and kept so ; or he is held down by the servants of 
the court, his feet drawn by cords run through a wooden bar, 
and then the blows are applied by two men, either side, each 
with a horrible whip, made of the raw hide of the hippopot- 
amus, rolled into a round form, who cut on, alternately, with- 
out mercy. 

It seems to me that the sense of compassion for the physical 
sufferings of others is unknown to Egyptian tribunals ; for the 
corporal punishments inflicted are shocking to humanity, and 



328 A PILGRIMAGE TO EGYPT. 

beyond the conception of Christian communities. Russia alone 
rivals, if it does not surpass, by the knout, the atrocious pim- 
ishment by the courbash. 

Bastinadoing for non-payment of government dues is bar- 
barous, but, nevertheless, pursued, till the taxes are liquidated. 
Some relative finally comes to the rescue of the delinquent, if 
he has no secreted means to fall back upon, in the last extrem- 
ity. Of the army or naval punishments I have collected no 
illustrations. In fact, the inquiry vi^as too painful, and the 
matter was dropped altogether. If they are cruel and without 
mercy at the civil tribunals, the system of flagellation in the 
camp and on shipboard must be hellish. I have been told of 
severity of discipline, under Ibrahim Pasha, the relation of 
which made one's blood boil. 

This disposition to fly to the whip, under all circumstances 
where order is to be enforced, is a marked trait in the charac- 
ter of the Egyptians. Whoever is in authority seeks an oppor- 
tunity to show it by a blow. 

An addition to the palace of the mother of the pasha was 
going up, not far from the main residence of the Franks ; and 
it was one of my morning recreations to take a position under 
a shade tree, and watch the mechanical processes. The part 
that was being erected was of stone, every block of which was 
obtained from the ruins of some previous edifice. Camels 
were constantly arriving w^ith them, and emptying the rope- 
nets of their contents, near where they were to be used. 
Tliere was a mortar-bed, in which the lime and sand were 
mixed by the hands of women. Men brought the water, in 
skins, on their backs. A legion of small boys and girls, with 
trays holding a few quarts, came to the mortar-bed, filled them, 
and marched ofl' with them on their heads, winding up the 
planks, to the top of the rising wall. When they emptied out 



PARENTAL LOTE. 



329 



the contents, the mason plumped a stone into it, and thus there 
was a constant falling mass of mortar. All these movements 
of the children were regulated by watchmen, with sticks or 
whips, who thrashed their backs unmercifully, if the slightest 
deviation from the prescribed course were observed. 

For some misdemeanor, one of the boys, one morning, was 
marched off for the police court. I followed, as long as my 
outraged sympathies would permit, to ascertain what he had 
been doing, and the result of the investigation. Such harsh- 
ness and severity as the policemen meted out to the poor, help- 
less child distressed me beyond endurance, without the possi- 
bility of pleading in his behalf. He struggled with the strength 
of an infant giant, as though he knew that the tortures of the 
damned awaited him. A group of women kept near him, one 
of whom, from the earnestness of her manner, was supposed 
to be the mother of the juvenile culprit. She even neglected 
to keep her veil adjusted, and repeatedly exposed her agonized 
face. Other females collected, and evinced a degree of feeling 
that was honorable to the sex ; while men and soldiers, and 
idling lads, appeared perfectly indifferent to the painful scene 
that was passing. 

Parental love is the same in every bosom, and in every 
country. The caresses bestowed by the lowest gradation of 
Arabs, in a mud hut, on their children, are as pure and cordial 
as the tenderest exhibitions in a Christian family. A mother 
is always true to the instincts of her nature. She cherishes 
and defends her child, and death alone can limit the extent of 
her efforts. It was a gratification to find one condition of life, 
in this old theatre of humanity, in which kindness was a spon- 
taneous product of the heart. 
2m 



330 A PILGRIMAGE TO EGYPT. 



EELIGION. 



Mohammedanism, like Mormonism, permits and regulates 
indulgences in a way to satisfy the deceived believer that he is 
piously doing his duty, while gratifying the selfish and low 
propensities of his nature. No wonder that a system that gives 
license for trampling on the rights of others, if they interfere 
with the ample provisions made by their prophet, rouses both 
individual and national anger. 

They are the most tolerant people on earth, and permit 
others to worship God as they choose, so long as no attempt is 
made to proselyte or seduce the followers of the Mohammedan 
faith from the homage due to their great spiritual guide. 
Although there are some who have the reputation of being 
more orthodox than others, and who have made further advances 
and exhibit purer lives than ordinary worshippers, there seems 
to be no division of sentiment among them in respect to the 
unalienable rights of men to deprive the other sex of every 
social and political privilege. There can be no progress where 
woman is degraded, and exercises no influence in moulding 
and refining the character of society. On no subject are Mo- 
hammedans so sensitive as on that of religion. The conceived 
infraction of a single law that emanates from the Koran rouses 
them to fury ; and the first thought is, to slaughter those who 
have dared to frown or ridicule upon the sacred institutions of 
Moslemism. Satisfied that they possess the only revelation 
which indicates the road to heaven, — and the doctrine being 
taught by authority, and enforced, too, when necessary, by the 
sword, — neither ambition nor curiosity prompts even the most 
learned among them to investigate the claims of Jew or Gen- 
tile ; but they hate them both, without being able to assign a 
satisfactory reason. Their code of morals is strictly observed ; 



RELIGION. 



831 



but what is Mohammedan virtue, in the estimation of a pro- 
fessor of Christianity ? They admit that our Saviour vms a 
divine personage, — a messenger from God, — but inferior, in 
dignity and power, to Mohammed. Taught to despise all who 
differ from themselves in religious opinions, what can they 
know of the fundamental principles of our faith ? They neither 
know nor care about the intellectuality of religion ; nor can 
they comprehend, they say, the philosophy of making one's 
self miserable on earth to gain a heaven hereafter. This idea 




POSTURES OP PEATEB. 



of individual wretchedness is probably based on observations 
made upon the appearance and habits of Catholic monks, of 
various orders, established in convents all over the East. 

Reasoning from w^hat they see, they very naturally conclude 
that a rational being who goes bare-footed, when he might 
wear shoes, — who cords his body with a rope, night and day, 



332 A PILGRIMAGE TO EGYPT. 

— who begs, when he could earn his bread, — is a fool. They 
refer, also, to nominal Christians, who are in readiness to do 
things, where they imagine themselves unknown, which they 
would scorn to do at home. Mussulmans prefer a faith that 
offers to their benighted minds more happiness in this life, and 
the expectation of greater felicity in the world to which they 
are destined. 

The Egyptian adults do not appear remarkably affectionate 
towards each other, of the same family. All the usual courte- 
sies of life are observed with a degree of solemnity that leads 
to a suspicion that their salaams are without a particle of sin- 
cerity. Towards the domestic animals they are particularly 
kind, and especially to those that hover about their habita- 
tions. They are patient, slow to anger, and exceedingly 
benevolent in calling down blessings. 

Horses, camels, sheep, goats and birds, that flee from Euro- 
peans, in deadly fear, stand in no apprehension of the approach 
of the Arab peasantry. Timid little birds, pigeons, wild fowl, 
or predacious eagles, scarcely move out of their way. This 
shows that generations, from a remote epoch, have been so 
tenderly treated that the instinct of fear is nearly obliterated. 
Wild geese are no exception ; and they abound on the Nile, 
through the winter, beyond computation. They arrive, it is 
conjectured, periodically, to avoid the severity of northern 
winters. 

In Alexandria there is a small Episcopal society, maintained 
by British residents. Nine persons only were present on one 
occasion, when I attended service ; and, a second time, a still 
smaller number. The Roman Catholics have a fine edifice, 
with a large walled enclosure, chiefly sustained by the Italians. 
A new building, of a soft, light, yellow sandstone, from Malta, 




MEN OF THE MIDDLE AND HIGHER CLASSES. Page 335. 



DOMESTIC HABITS. 335 

for the Episcopal church, ii well located, on the consular 
square, and will, no doubt, soon be completed. 

In Upper Eg}^pt, mention is made, in the diary, of a con- 
vent of Greeks, and a Roman Catholic chapel. Eg}"pt is a 
clear field for missionaries, who would not be molested in their 
efforts among the Jews, though it would be dangerous to med- 
dle with the Moslem believers. 

DO:kIESTIC HABITS AXD ECOXOMY. 

The garments of the Arabs give them a fine appearance, 
since they fit every one, no matter what his height, size, or 
age. They look elegant and dignified, when well dressed. 
A Greek costume, which is pretty generally worn by the 
Turks, who ape foreign fashions, will not compare with the 
other, for it imparts no princely character to the wearer. All 
the officers of the army and civil service have the French fash- 
ion of pantaloons and frock-coat ; but still retain the red. cap, 
with a blue silk tassel. A shirt, in the country, is an unknowTi 
article ; and but few in the cities ever possessed one. Collars, 
cravats, plaited bosoms, ruffles and ViTistbands, are unrecog- 
nized embarrassments. A majority sleep at night in the 
clothes worn through the day. 

Eeds are unknown, except in the three hotels which have 
been created for the accommodation of travellers, and in the 
houses of foreigners. In the dwellings of the opulent, the 
family repose on piles of soft cushions, thrown on a slightly- 
raised platform, round the sides of the room. Throughout the 
rural districts, a straw mat, on the mud floor, answers the 
same purpose. 

How ladies dress, in the harems of the great men, is only 
known to their proprietors, and those few favored females who 
are permitted to have access to them. Other women sel- 



336 



A PILGRIMAGE TO EGYPT. 



dom wear more than two articles of dress : namely, a long, 
loose blue frock, with bag sleeves, open in front to the waist, 
and an apology for a veil, witli which they hide their faces. 

Standing by a blazing brush fire, just lighted, in the desert, 
where we had encamped, one of the camel-drivers made some 
inquiry about my pantaloons. He said he could not endure to 
be confined in two bags ; and, holding up his frock, to take the 
full influence of the heat, intimated that I had no such comfort 
as he was enjoying. 

The custom of concealing the face, by females, is universal ; 
a peep-hole, however, for one eye, — frightfully bedaubed with 
kohol, antimony, or some other blue paint, — to survey the outer 
world, is allov/ed. With one hand the cloth is held together, 




llliiiiidLJliiiJiidj 



WASHING, BEFORE OR AFTEK MEALS. 



in folds, to hide their features, and with the other they steady 
burdens on their heads, or hold a child By the legs, sitting on 
one of their shoulders. Their little children are a nuisance, 




WOMEN AND CHILDREN OF THE LOWER CLASSES. Page ;;3(;. 



DOMESTIC HABITS. 



S39 



they are so very offensive, from the soreness of their eyes, the 
dirty state of their skin, and their shorn heads. It is an import- 
ant consideration with them to keep off the evil eye, — an 
emanation from a Christian, or any other unholy, uncircum- 
cised dog, who may look on their offspring, with the avowed 
intention of throwing a curse. 

A table ceremony is much the same in all families, where it 
is well regulated ; for there no female sits with her husband or 
sons. There being neither knives nor forks, spoons nor pick- 




PARTT AT DINNEK. 



ers, the frequent use of the fingers requires much washing of 
the hands. 

The position on the floor, to me^ was prodigiously uncom- 



340 A PILGRIMAGE TO EGYPT. 

fortable, — the table being both too low, and the food too hot ; 
which made the sitting till all the dishes had been tasted 
extremely irksome. 

In Cairo and Alexandria, ladles are met taking an airing, on 
asses, preceded by a runner, cracking a whip to clear the way. 
A slave goes by their side, to steady them in case of accident, 
followed by a formidable coal-black eunuch, the guardian-angel 
of female respectability and virtue wherever Mohammedanism 
prevails. A strange part of these veiled exhibitions, to us 
outside barbarians, was this, namely, that the females invariably 
sit astride the animal on the saddle, with both feet firmly set in 
the stirrups, while their bodies, on these occasions, are envel- 
oped in large black silk cloaks, which inflate with the wind, and 
give them a ludicrous aspect. 

I have collected some startling facts in regard to the traffic 
in that most unfortunate of men, the Ethiopian eunuchs, who, 
at this day, as in every age, beyond the reach of history, have 
been in request in Egypt, and throughout the orient. The 
destruction of human life is deplorable, in preparing the poor 
stolen boys, to fit them for the functions they are to perform, 
when grown to an adult stature, in the harems of those who 
are able to purchase them of the slave-dealers. 

Nearly all the eunuchs who are brought to market are from 
the interior of Africa, and are brought down the Nile. For 
some years, the Coptish priests in Abyssinia were accused of 
being the operators. Not more than twenty in a hundred are 
represented to survive the cruel maiming. For this reason, the 
price is always so high that only persons of wealth can aflbrd to 
purchase them. 

Several well-informed gentlemen assured me that the loss of 
life had been less under the improved system that was now 
employedo Instead of ignorant priests, two French surgeons, 



EUNUCHS. 341 

of abandoned character, are residing at a place somewhere in 
Dongola, for the express purpose of making eunuchs for the 
Egyptian and Turkish markets. Their murderous cruelty, 
which consigns hundreds to the grave in the very spring-tide 
of life, should be brought to an end, if it is possible for Chris- 
tian or political influences to reach them. I find it difficult to 
explain myself intelligibly on this subject. The maiming is not 
what most writers, especially medical commentators, suppose. 
That would not endanger life to the extent represented. The 
maiming is an utter excision and removal of every vestige that 
characterizes the boy from the other sex. They die of exces- 
sive hsBmorrhage, before the arteries can be secured, especially 
when they fall under the w^orse than barbarian murderers who 
are ignorant of their anatomical organization. 

No people are proverbially so honest and trustworthy, stable- 
minded, abstemious, and moral, in th-e system to which they 
have been trained, as the Egyptians. Their Koran, — the pro- 
phetic guide, in which they have an unshaken confidence, — 
and their wise men, have marked out a chart of social, religious 
and political duties, the observance of which is essential to 
purity of life. There are neither almshouse, penitentiaries, 
state prisons, poor rates, nor a tax for the maintenance of a 
priesthood. They have cherished institutions, to which they 
cling with tenacity. 

With this view of the organization of society, and the feeling 
that pervades all orders of minds, what could a missionary 
accomplish, till he first overturned, and broke up, and blotted 
out of remembrance, whatever is vitally at war with the first 
principles of the Christian code ? He must first destroy insti- 
tutions that were as firmly established in Eg^^pt and Palestine 
as they now are, before Abraham sojourned in the Holy Land. 
29=^ 



342 A PILGRIMAGE TO EGYPT. 

This prepares the way for some remarks on the following 
subjects : 

MARRIAGE AND POLYGAMY. 

If polygamy runs riot anywhere, it is in Eg^^^pt ; for it seems 
to be the ambition of every man, as in Turkey, to have a grand 
domestic establishment, because it is the appendage of a gentle- 
man, and an indication of position and respectability. In every 
condition, among poor or rich, a prominent desire is to have a 
very numerous family of children. It is a predominant national 
trait, influencing, alike, both sexes. No one ever had too 
many, or relinquished the delightful anticipation of having 
more. 

There are two places, in Upper Egypt, famed for conferring 
on females the extent of their wishes, — to become mothers. 
They are both stones, — perhaps old door-steps, — over which 
they step or stand, uttering invocations, probably, to the prophet; 
and, such is their reputation, that women make long journeys 
to them. Dr. Abbott, of Cairo, informed me that he had 
some mummies stowed in an out-of-the-way building, enclosed 
by a yard, into which he one day entered, where, to his sur- 
prise, were a large number of women and girls, some quite 
juvenile, who, being alarmed, flew away as fast as they could 
scamper, but finally returned to explain themselves. They 
had heard that, by jumping over a mummy twelve times, they 
should be fruitful ; and thus the rabble, yoiing and old, had 
been running for luck over those dried remains of humanity. 

This whim seems to have been universally diflused through 
the east; and even the females of Athens, in the glory of 
Greece, used to slide down a certain rock, near the Arseopagus, 
to obtain the same favor of the gods. 

The lady of the house in which we resided, in Alexandria, 



POLYGAMY. 343 

told me that her cook, a young man, had three wives. In reply- 
to the question how he could possibly support them, with their 
increasing stock of children, she said that he did nothing for 
them. He expended his wages to suit himself; and they con- 
trived to subsist, in small huts, at a remote part of the town, as 
they could. 

While in the desert, in the course of an evening chat over 
the expiring embers under which a millet-cake was baking, one 
of the circle — who was evidently a man of consequence in the 
caravan to which he belonged, and who was listened to with a 
respectful attention by those in his company — asked where 1 
came from. It was extremely difficult to make him comprehend 
that my country was over a great ocean, beyond England. He 
next inquired the name of the pasha who governed it. I then 
explained — very imperfectly, however — the principles of our 
, constitution, and told him that the people made and unmade 
all the high and low pashas, and turned them out of office, if 
they abused their power. 

This was altogether marvellous political intelligence ; for he, 
for the first time, to my apprehension, heard of a republic. 
Possibly a seed was sown, that may germinate at a future day, 
and spread its branches through Syria. Finally, I came directly 
to the point, and assured my attentive, big-turbaned acquaint- 
ance, that America was a land of freedom. This made his 
eyes sparkle, and he puffed longer whifFs of smoke. When the 
account was concluded, he asked if it was a good country to 
procure wives in ! Being taken by surprise by this question, I 
took an extreme case, where a gentleman fell upon his marrow- 
bones, and besought the object of his adoration to have mercy 
upon him; and, to keep him from hanging himself, the lady, 
after sufficiently humbling her suppliant, sometimes consented 
to become his wife. This was an unexpected process, and a 



344 A PILGRIMAGE TO EGYPT. 

perfect stumbling-block; for he could not comprehend how 
females should be permitted to exercise either a free will or 
express a choice. On the whole, he remarked, after a little 
reflection, he did not think much of our system. He then went 
on to say that Syria was a bad country for wdves, — his success 
in that way had been far from satisfactory. He had recently 
divorced four, and was now trying four new ones ; and. with a 
sort of sigh, further observed, that, among them all, he had but 
just six children ! I then asked him how he could support so 
many women, with their children, in this poor, oppressed, sandy 
region ? " 0," said he, rolling his eyes up devotionally towards 
the heaven, " God is great ! " — " Sir," I observed, rather incau- 
tiously, no doubt, " were you in America, they would string 
you up by the neck, for it is a crime there to have more than 
one wife at a time." — "Then I don't think much of the lib- 
erty of which you have boasted," he quickly replied. " 

One of his camel-drivers — a mere lad — said that he had 
only one wife yet ; but she had a bi7it, — that is, a little girl, — 
and he was, therefore, satisfied, for the present, with his good 
fortune. This brought an observation from another Arab, 
Hassein, — a snakey, black-eyed, copper-colored fellow, full of 
activity and good nature, — who exultingly declared he had 
three ! 

In the same caravan was a miserable dirty being, with two 
boys and a girl; whom he abused outrageously, — kicking, and 
thrashing them w^ith a short pipe-stick, as though their heads 
were kettle-drums. I felt compassionately towards the poor, 
abused girl, with all her present and growing troubles incident 
to the position of females in that country ; for she had club-feet, 
— the first and only malformation of the limbs I saw in the 
desert. The old scoundrel used to intimate that he was starv- 
ing, when a little hard bread was given to the children, by way 



UNCERTAIN TENURE OP MARRIAGE. 345 

of getting a cramb for himself. While trudging along by my 
camel's side, I inquired where he was travelling. He said he 
was intending to go to Musr, for he heard it was a good place 
to procure a wife. 

Life in the desert, with the opportunities presented for gather- 
ing information of this kind, would hardly find credence among 
Christians, and I shall not, therefore, relate anything further 
of this character, since the foregoing are sufficient to illustrate 
the customs and present condition of society with one class of 
inhabitants. 

Wives so unfortunate as not to become mothers, by general 
consent, hold the affections of their husbands by an uncertain 
tenure. Divorces, from that cause, are so common, as to create 
but little or no surprise where they occur. Other causes happen 
to promote the infelicity of the parties, which cannot very well 
be explained. A person assured me he had known a man to 
have four wives, — the legalized number permitted by the 
Koran, — and divorce all of them in the course of twelve 
months. And why was he so fickle-minded ? was a question 
asked before I was aware of it. ^'- Caiise he try and no like 
^em" was the speedy answer. 

All Egypt is full of divorced women. In obtaining a wife, 
the adventurer literally searches, with one hand, in a bag of 
serpents, for a single eel ; for he never sees her till after mar- 
riage. Those wives who have sons — according to the inform- 
ation derived from those who must know the whole structure 
of the social relations — possess almost unlimited authority in 
the household. Notwithstanding the prodigious number of 
females of the upper classes shut up in harems, there is cer- 
tainly a redundancy of female population throughout Egypt, as 
statistical tables show there is in the whole of Europe. 

According to some writers on the manners and customs of 



346 A PILGRIMAGE TO EGYPT. 

the Egyptians, polygamy is not so common in the higher 
walks of life as has been represented. Those who are most 
familiar with the organization of society explain the matter 
thus : A gentleman finds it too expensive to support a numer- 
ous iiarem, in which there is a full complement of four wives, 
with their necessary attendants ; and he therefore concentrates 
his attention upon one, who is provided with a retinue of 
female slaves, — the property of the husband, — who become 
mothers of many children. In that relation they are more 
economically supported. 

In the interior of the country, among the fellahs, it is very 
certain as many avail themselves of the constitutional number 
of four wives as can maintain them. They, on the other hand, 
have no female slaves in the same anomalous position of the 
female slaves of a rich man's household. 

An impression is abroad that the population is decreasing in 
Egypt. On the contrary, w^e believe that, since the termination 
of the wars in which the late viceroy and his son were actively 
engaged, an increase has taken place, which will shortly be 
perceptible. The government takes no census, and strives to 
conceal both the number of inhabitants and the resources of 
agriculture. 

A family of brothers occasionally present the singular anom- 
aly of being of all shades of color, from white to black. Chil- 
dren of wealthy fathers, how^ever, are usually better looking 
and lighter in complexion than the indigent, on account of 
the fair skins of their Circassian and other imported mothers. 
All the Turks in Egypt — constituting the highest class, as in 
Turkey — are really only half-blooded; and, inconsequence of 
this mixture of races, they are among the handsomest of men, 
in their physical development, on the globe ; and, while their 
custom of purchasing wives distinguished alone for their beauty 



THE HAREM. 347 

continues, they will be further improved in that respect. The 
pure, unadulterated Arabs, as far as my examinations extended, 
are very dark, swarthy and straight-haired, with a light beard. 
Where there is a heavy, bushy beard and whiskers, it is very 
certain that this graceful appendage, the jewel of their pride, 
is due to the circulation of northern blood in their veins. 

European ladies visiting Egypt omit no opportunities of vis- 
iting harems ; and some of them are extremely enthusiastic in 
their descriptions of the elegances they have seen, and the 
sweet infants they kissed. They have been known, also, to 
become eloquent against the abomination of boxing up such 
specimens of unsurpassed beauty and female loveliness. Not- 
withstanding the severity of their denunciations against the 
wicked Turks, declaring their conduct shameful, and pronounc- 
ing their monopolizing spirit a just cause for immediate hostil- 
ities, some commentators have been so ungenerous as to suggest 
that many of those very indignant spinsters would not refuse 
the position of first lady of the mansion, if earnestly besought. 

It is well known that Mrs. M , the wife of Dr. M , of 

Constantinople, an English physician, actually left her hus- 
band, and seven young children, to commence life anew, with 
a distinguished pasha. She seems to have been completely 
fascinated with the luxurious indolence and secret orgies of 
a harem. Through her instrumentality. Miss Pardoe, author- 
ess of the City of the Sultan, — a work of extraordinary inter- 
est, — got access to them, and thus collected materials for pub- 
lication. 

There is not a native-born woman, either in Egypt or Asia, 
who would not scorn the proposition of leaving the harem for 
the marital relation ; the former being her conceded appropri- 
ate sphere, where, if the destinies are favorably disposed, and 



348 A PILGRIMAGE TO EGYPT. 

she becomes the mother of a son, she ever after reigns the sov- 
ereign of a little kingdom of obedient slaves. 

Of the internal economy of those apartments I know noth- 
ing, except through the relations of ladies perfectly familiar 
with the inmates of many of them. I recollect a lady who 
was in the habit of visiting the twenty-three widows of Moham- 
med Ali, whom she declared to be the kindest, sweetest, and 
most delightful women she had ever known. She was herself 
from England, and certainly had had advantages such as might 
enable her properly to estimate character. Both Mrs. B. and 
the accomplished wife of an English physician of Alexandria 
occasionally called on the wife of Said Pasha, — admiral of the 
fleet, and heir apparent to the vice-regal throne, — who was a 
Circassian slave, brought up under the care of his own sister, 
and by her presented to his highness. They concurred in 
the declaration that she was the loveliest creature they ever 
beheld. This peerless queen of beauty is the first lady of a 
very grand establishment. Her apartments are as gorgeous 
as unlimited resources can make them ; yet she is a prisoner 
for life, without the prospect of liberty ; nor would she accept 
it, if it were proffered, — for where else should a great lady 
be ? In addition to every window being latticed, to give fur- 
ther security, — all in the way of pomp and circumstance, — ■ 
a high wall surrounds the palace, so that it is impossible for its 
inmate to see twenty-five feet from the window-stool. From 
morning to night she lounges on rich down cushions, piled in 
a corner, where she reclines a while, smokes a nargeeleh, and 
then tries another set of silk lollers, in another position. A 
crowd of slaves, rivalling her own matchless beauty, are perpet- 
ually watching her behest; and thus life glides away. The 
husband rarely enters the house once in six months. He has 
been known to stop in the entry, give some orders to the serv- 



DISEASES OF EGYPT. 349 

ants, and retire. Mrs. B. assured me that Mrs. Pasha was 
very miserable, longed to see her husband, and talked about 
him continually whenever she called, and yet confessed that 
she was more afraid of him than she was of death. One of her 
lamentations was that she had no children; and, therefore, 
nothing in expectancy, nothing to hope for. 

A medical acquaintance was consulted, by a certain distin- 
guished public functionary, in regard to a pain he felt in the 
chest, just after a hearty dinner. He was recommended to 
take a warm bath. The prescription struck him favorably ; 
and he told the doctor that he would have all his women 
called, to administer it ; observing, with a roguish expression, 
" I pity you poor devils, with only one wife ; you don't know 
anything about being taken care of." 

MEDICAL MEN AND DISEASES OF EGYPT. 

in the course of my survey, from the shores of the Mediter- 
ranean to ancient Syene, where the tower stood mentioned by 
the prophet Ezekiel, although wearied with the incessant labor 
of exploring various ruins, besides twice crossing a section of 
the desert of Arabia on the back of a camel, I improved every 
opportunity for collecting such facts as could be relied upon in 
regard to medical men, and the diseases peculiar to the country. 

There are three leading, dreaded endemic maladies, to con- 
trol which ancient and modern physicians have exerted them- 
selves, with very unsatisfactory success : namely, the plague, 
on the origin and treatment of which no two agree, any more 
than in the United States in regard to the cause and cure of 
cholera : ophthalmia, a fixture, that defies native control ; and, 
lastly, Asiatic cholera, that goes where it listeth, independent 
of sanitary cordons or drugs. To me there is nothing obscure 
in the origin of ophthalmia, which I have investigated through 
30 



350 A PILGRIMAGE TO EGYPT. 

the whole Nilotic extent of Egypt. Filth gives rise to it, in 
most cases ; it always has produced it, and always will, till the 
customs and habits of the Arabs and Jews — the principal suf- 
ferers — are radically reformed. But this will probably never 
happen ; nor will the disease, in all its painful, aggravated, and 
often hopeless forms, cease to afflict them, while water runs 
from the Mountains of the Moon down the inclined plane of 
the valley. 

Sometimes both men and women wash their faces, although 
it is not an habitual practice ; but, in the act, whenever they do, 
they adroitly avoid touching their eyes with the water. At all 
times, the poorest division of fellahs are unstomachable objects. 
Washing makes them no cleaner. The margins of their eye- 
lids look red and fretted, in the incipient form of the approach- 
ing inflammation, which makes them still more cautious about 
touching them with the very application they most require, — 
water. 

An impression is propagated that the eyes should not be 
wet; and thus the angles are perpetually in a bad condition, 
especially in small children, and young infants. Swarms of 
flies are invariably crowding and jostling for a place at the 
fountain of corruption ; and when they take wing, the purulent 
matter with which their feet are laden is transferred to the 
optics of others, and thus the loathsome, destructive distemper 
is diflused, and extensively propagated. Our dragoman, on a 
particular occasion, had fearful indications of an acute attack 
of ophthalmia, which would have been a sad affliction to my- 
self and associates, since our intercourse with the inhabitants, 
and the success of our researches, depended essentially on his 
tongue and perfect vision. He was urged to bathe his eyes 
frequently in cold water, and to sleep with a pledget over them 
kept saturated with it. To this simple application he strenu- 



OPHTHALMIA. 351 

ously objected, and brought up the false notion, that nobody 
dare apply water under such and such circumstances, which he 
mentioned ; but I insisted, and, on the second day, it was our 
happiness to perceive a favorable change, and within a week 
he perfectly recovered. A second case came under my care, in 
a person officially connected with a public office, in Cairo, who 
had unmistakable premonition of an attack. He was urged to 
the same course of treatment. He, too, had his whims and 
prejudices to contend with; but the fear of becoming blind 
secured the use of water, and a speedy restoration followed. 

These illustrations of the natural method of reducing an 
inflammation of the eyes and their appendages are introduced 
for the purpose of influencing future travellers to adopt, at the 
onset, the speediest and most effectual remedy, should they 
suffer from the insidious approaches of ophthalmia. When 
leeches — the usual preliminary course — are applied, I have 
observed that no reduction of inflammation follows, although 
the excessive pain, a sense of fulness in the ball, burning, and 
the disagreeable feeling of grains of sand under the lids, may 
subside. 

The physicians of Egypt sometimes deplete very considera- 
bly ; but the evidence of their poor success is found in the 
multitude of blind men, women and children, throughout all 
the nomes and provinces of that peculiar country. While 
sojourning in the desert, I made it a matter of special inquiry 
whether ophthalmia made its appearance in those arid regions. 
The Bedouin Arabs, those dreaded nomads, whose hand is 
against every man, and every man's hand against them, from 
their own account, are not subject to it; and they are almost 
invulnerable to every other disease with which human beings 
are ordinarily afflicted. They are thin, spare, tall, bronze-col- 



852 A PILGRIMAGE TO EGYPT. 

ored people, with coal-black, restless eyes, full of activity and 
mischief. My recollections of them are vivid. 

While in company with a mercantile caravan, of sixty camels, 
bound to Eg-ypt, over the Hadji track, there was a rumored 
fear of attack on a particular evening, just after encamping, 
from the sand-hill Bedouins. There was prodigious commo- 
tion ; and those who were armed with ojd horse-pistols were 
extremely anxious to procure powder of Mr. Warren. There 
w^ere two of the Bedouins, at that moment, in the camp, quar- 
tered upon the hospitality of their more civilized brethren, who 
actually stood more in av^re of them, from their intimate knowl- 
edge of their treacherous character, than of the courbash of the 
grand sultan of Turkey. ^ 

The exemption of this people from ophthalmia may perhaps 
be considered as opposed to my theory ; for the Bedouins rarely 
wash, it being difficult to procure water even to meet the 
demands of thirst. They, however, wipe their faces, and keep 
the angles of the eyelids cleanly. When Europeans take the 
distemper, it is not unlikely that they contract it through the 
agency of flies, as previously described. 

The slight inflammations that arise from the intense glare 
and reflection of the sun's rays are not to be confounded with 
this awful scourge, by which thousands upon thousands have 
been made permanently and helplessly blind. Mothers, as 1 
have often noticed, m^ake no effort to dislodge and drive away 
flies from the purulent, discharging eyes of their children. 

In the bazaars, among the Jew brokers, and various other 
producing classes, I have gazed, with perfect astonishment and 
pity, too, at the clusters of insects collected on the angles of 
their ulcerated orbits. 

Typhus fever is an annual visitant, principally confined to 
the cities, and sweeps off very many foreigners, among whom 



DISEASES. 353 

Italians and English are predominant, and, therefore, severe 
sufferers. Dr. Farquar informed me that intermittents are 
extensively prevalent in Lower Egypt, of which vast numbers 
die. Medications, thus far, have not been particularly success- 
ful. The overflowing of the Nile leaves an immense plateau 
of country in a slimy condition, for months. The evaporation, 
under a torrid sun, modifies the atmosphere, and evidently leads 
to immediate derangements of the vital machinery. 

Pulmonary consumption, one would naturally suppose, from . 
the singular customs of the lower orders, would be an all-pre- 
vailing and incurable malady. Cases, however, are not numer- 
ous ; and, what is worthy of special mention, comparatively 
rare in places where it might be supposed most frequent. 

Mechanics and laborers, of all denominations, — including 
seamen and females, — go barefooted through life. They have 
apologies for shoes, occasionally ; but they may generally be 
considered as shoeless, from infancy to age. Near the Nile, the 
inhabitants are semi-amphibious, being excessively fond of water, 
regardless of cold or crocodiles. They sleep in their one cotton 
garment, that is worn through the day, out of doors, on the bare 
earth, or in mud hovels, where there is no want of ventilation. 
In the coldest nights of the winter, some muster a coarse bor- 
nouse, — a garment in form analogous to the blue shirt, with 
the addition of a hood, — and their health is generally excellent. 

Infantile diseases, embracing a long catalogue of undefined 
ailments, carry to an early grave immense numbers of young 
children. Small-pox is fearfully severe with them. Mothers 
invariably feed their infants on such things as they are fond of 
themselves ; even bits of carrots are forced into their little stom- 
achs ; and thus the mortality among children is very consider- 
ably increased by the ignorance of those who have them in 
30^ 



354 A riLGRIMAGE TO EGYPT. 

charge. When they lose them, they console themselves with 
the hope of having more. 

It is difficult to fathom the anomaly of this uniform desire ; 
for an anomaly it is, contrasted with the dread of a numerous 
progeny in Christian countries. It has always been so in 
Egypt and the East, from the first records of humanity ; and it 
will probably continue a national characteristic through all suc- 
ceeding ages. Fatal childbirth seems hardly known. Degrad- 
ing immoralities leave a mark on individuals not easily effaced. 
Many a nose is seen, in the narrow streets of Cairo, minus the 
bridge. 

The lowest Turks, and all graceless Arabs who have the 
means for indulgence, are notoriously addicted to a vice for 
which Sodom and Gomorrah were consumed with fire from 
heaven. It is a sin without parallel in the annals of human 
degradation, and yet it is not recognized as a revolting, unnat- 
ural crime ; even if it were, those the most infamously guilty 
are above the reach of any human law. There might be related, 
from my note-book, astounding facts, from the lips of eminent 
medical gentlemen, illustrative of the weight and extreme depth 
of these abominations of abominations ; but, as Herodotus said, 
in speaking of certain mysteries taught him by the priests, 
twenty-three centuries ago, where this sentence is written, I do 
not feel at liberty to reveal them. 

There are one or two military hospitals in Egypt, under the 
charge of foreign physicians and surgeons, assisted by those 
home-bred native Arab doctors who have been trained at the 
expense of the pasha. 

Most of the surgery results from accidents. Tumors are 
scarcely seen. Amputations are rare ; but couching is a com- 
mon operation. Distorted limbs are seldom met with. Two 
cases of club-feet, onlV} Vi^ere recognized by me, — one of which 



CHOLERA. 355 

has been already adverted to, seen in the desert ; and the other 
was a full-grown mendicant, who invariably hobbled after us, 
on his hands and knees, in the Frank street of Cairo. 

Cholera is a desolating scourge ; but it is most terrific among 
the annual pilgrims to Mecca. On the route down ,the Nile, 
we fell in with some of the returning hadji, — sinners before 
reaching Mohammed's tomb, but saints on their return. They 
travelled on camels from the holy city to Keneh, on what is 
known as the Corsair road, and from thence floated along 
leisurely in boats. They gave a thrilling narrative of the 
devastation among the congregated thousands near the shrine 
of the prophet, by that angel of death, Asiatic cholera. We 
were in company with a returning pilgrim, on the desert, bound 
to Constantinople, who informed me that twenty thousand 
persons had died of cholera at Mecca, in the course of a few 
weeks, before he left. Subsequently, this intelligence was 
confirmed by another pilgrim, with whom we travelled, on his 
way to Algiers. During the influential period of Clot Bey, the 
medical school, raised by his personal exertions, had a reputa- 
tion ; but, with the death of his patron, Mohammed Ali, the sun 
of his greatness went down. However, besides a reputation, 
he obtained what every adventurer in the service of the same 
master had in view, a splendid fortune; and with it he made 
a move for belle France, on a change of administration, where 
he is resting upon his golden oars, and quafling such bottles of 
champagne as he never drank in the palace of Shoobra. Say 
what enemies may of him, however, — it being fine sport to 
kick a dead lion, — Clot Bey was a great man for Egypt. 
While he was there, the true principles of surgery were taught. 

Italian physicians and surgeons ought to be kicked out : a 
more beggarly, sycophantic set of unprincipled toadies, never 
breathed. Reference has been made to one of them, — Andreg, 



356 A PILGRIMAGE TO EGYPT. 

the pseudo-medical officer at El Arish, who did the only- 
honest act of his life in confessing that he knew nothing of 
medicine. 

A dirty, bare-legged fellow, in the wake of a caravan, having 
discovered that I was a hakem, asked assistance, on account of 
a bronchial inflammation. He said he had consulted the grand 
hakem, at El Arish, who furnished a powder, that was to act 
like magic; but, instead of aflfording relief, it had severely- 
augmented the evil about the palate. I found the article was 
nothing but wood-ashes, which he directed to have blown down 
the throat, in large pinches, several times a day, — an operation 
I often witnessed. A boy laid the dose on a bit of paper, near 
the patient's widely-extended jaws, which was puffed into the 
fauces by a blast through a pipe-stem. 

While making researches in this particular line, several 
German medical aspirants were discovered to be rising into 
court favor. They have possession of the medical school, and 
some hospitals ; and, possibly, by their gentlemanly address, 
show of science, and apparent sympathy for the poor, they may 
reign in turn. Dr. Greisingen, from Keil ; Dr. Keger, formerly 
of Tubengen ; and Dr. Lantner, of Vienna, I believe to be very 
worthy, learned men. They lecture on different branches, in 
the French language, which is translated, word for word, into 
Arabic, for the students, who are, invariably, thick-skulled 
fellows, who cannot make any striking progress ; consequently, 
Egypt will not be distinguished, very soon, by the appearance 
of another Albufeda, to write upon science or antiquities. 
Thus far, not one of these native scholars has attained a place 
of high professional responsibility. 

Medical adventurers hover about Alexandria and Cairo, 
simply because there are no other places offering for a resting- 
place for the soles of their feet. Like Noah's dove, they leave 



MEDICAL PRACTICE. 357 

Europe in the strength, of hope, because the profession has 
multiplied at home entirely beyond the demands of society. 

A German hydropathist settled in Alexandria, but met with 
no success at all. The Arabs ridiculed the idea of curing dis- 
eases with water, an element those who resided near the Nile 
were perpetually dabbling in. He died, about three months 
before our arrival, without having gained much reputation. 

After diligent inquir\^, no homceopathists could be found. I 
have an indistinct impression that some of that order of prac- 
titioners had been in Eg}^pt ; but no sensation could have been 
made by a system so novel, without awakening more interest 
than any one manifested in it with whom we conversed. 

Unless they have an appointment, the prospect must be poor 
indeed; for the fees are small, and the Arabs have nothing to 
pay with. 

Those in a condition to command eminent medical attention 
are miserable pay-masters. They are admirable promisors. 
" Only cure me,"' is a common remark, and the best cow in the 
herd, a fleet bourser, &c.,are to be forthcoming; but they never 
come. No operation is performed till the piastres are counted 
upon the table. What is thus secured is all the surgeon will 
ever receive ; consequently, this course is quite justifiable. 

Druggists are plenty, and have the general appearance of 
thrift, particularly in Alexandria; their profits, however, are 
not from putting up prescriptions, but from the sale of fancy 
articles. 

French medical books are most in request ; but how much 
they are studied is another matter. No one appears to keep pace 
with the discoveries of the day ; hence, medical periodicals are 
a rarity. No great ambition is shown to presence for publica- 
tion the results of medical experience. 

On the eve of sailing from the United States, a letter was 



358 A PILGRIMAGE TO EGYPT. 

received from an esteemed medical friend, Dr. Muzzey, of Cin- 
cinnati, urging me to investigate that horrible disease, leprosy, 
which was thoroughly attended to; and the results of my 
inquiries have already appeared, in the Boston Medical and 
Surgical Journal. I am unwilling, however, to deny myself 
the pleasure of adverting to Dr. Muzzey's widely-promulgated 
anathemas against tobacco, the habitual use of which, in the 
climate of New England, is as much objected to by myself, as 
by that staunch apostle of temperance in eating, drinking, and 
smoking. But, with all his zeal, his unquestioned philan- 
thropy, his bold arguments, and cogent reasonings, on the 
injurious effects of tobacco, in Egypt he would find stumbling- 
blocks in the way of his honest conclusions infinitely worse to 
manage than a hogshead of the best Kentucky in the market. 
Men, from childhood, smoke incessantly. They smoke every- 
where, and under all circumstances. There is no cessation ; 
not an hour when a cloud of curling smoke is not ascending 
upward to the skies. It is the first and prominent civility to 
hand a pipe ; and smoke you must, or suffer under the imputa- 
tion of being no gentleman ; and, were the good man of Cin- 
cinnati sitting where I am writing, he would smoke, also, as 
everybody is smoking about me, like a coal-pit, People live 
long enough, in Egypt, in all conscience, notwithstanding this 
everlasting smoking; for they outlive their usefulness, outlive 
everything but animal wants, and some of them live till every- 
body wishes they were dead ! 

I have not been an inattentive observer of the smoking 
mania in Germany, Holland, or other parts of continental 
Europe ; on the contrary, a strict inquiry into the moral and 
constitutional evils of the habit — very appropriately called a 
vice — was instituted, while passing from kingdom to king- 
dom ; and I have arrived at the gratifying conclusion, that, if 



DIET OF ARABS. 359 

persons wish to smoke, it is not worth while to waste breath in 
trying to counteract it. 

Ahother kind of smoking is practised in Egypt, quite new to 
us in America : namely, Indian hemp, known under the name 
of hasheesh. There are apartments where individuals, for a 
trifle, may go, and draw in the exliilarating smoke through a 
long pipe-stem, till a miserable, barefooted rascal is converted 
into an imaginary prince. In a few moments, he sees the gates 
of a Mohammedan paradise widely opened, for his royal 
entrance. He gazes wildly towards the sky, and suddenly 
laughs himself almost into convulsions, till all consciousness 
passes away, and the poor fool falls into a lethargy of consider- 
able duration. I suspect that cigars are charged with hasheesh, 
and not opium, as erroneously supposed : and are made the 
instruments, in the hands of rogues, in London and other great 
cities, for the perpetration of all kinds of crimes. 

A singularly pungent, unpalatable composition is chewed in 
the Thebiad, into which quick-lime enters largely, that burns 
the tongue of an unpractised amateur like a hot coal. Those 
addicted to the use of it have shockingly bad teeth, and a fetid 
breath. They say a little piece is equal to a full meal, in 
keeping off hunger. 

From the Arabs, Jews, Abyssinians, slaves and freemen, 
with whom 1 have had intercourse, exceedingly novel facts 
have been collected, illustrative of the dietetic regimen in their 
several countries. A promulgation of them among modern 
physiological society reformers would sadly unhinge some of 
their most potent theoretical conclusions. Were they to 
attempt the introduction of a few of the modern glorious hob- 
bies into Egypt, they would at once be laughed at, as imprac- 
ticable fools ; and, after the blush of chagrin at the absurdity 
of their moonshine propositions had subsided, they would laugh 



360 



A PILGRIMAGE TO EGYPT. 



themselves, at their own stupidity, meddling propensities, and 
narrow-minded conceptions of the elements of humanity. 

CHARITIES AND CHARITABLE INSTITUTIONS. 

All systems of religion enjoin alms-giving. Charity is 
encouraged in Egypt; and the pious, in their lifetime, often 
make provision for the necessities of the poor. I have already 
alluded to the public fountains erected in Cairo and other cities 
by the charitable; but, of all which have come under my 
observation, those in the first-named place are the shabbiest, 
and least calculated to command admiration. As works of art, 
they are rude specimens of mechanical ingenuity. Sums are 




appropriated by others, to be expended in hiring men to distrib- 
ute w^ater, in the streets, from skin fountains on their backs. 
They give it freely to whoever asks. In very warm weather, 



MADHOUSES. 361 

water is a luxury incomparably superior to any other bever- 
age ; and this gives a character to the charity. 

The moristan, or madhouse, may properly be noticed as a 
charity. It appears that, as far back as A. D. 890, Aboolgaysh 
Khamaravveeh built a place for the reception of lunatics ; but 
it dwindled into insignificance, and the funds set apart for its 
maintenance, if there ever were any, were unquestionably taken 
possession of by the first sultan who wanted the property. 
Four hundred years later, another was erected, which, partak- 
ing of the multifarious changes this section of the world has 
been destined to undergo, is probably a very different institu- 
tion now from what it was even a century since. 

From a description given of the moristan, in some of the 
guide-books, a very beautiful and w-ell-conducted establishment 
might be expected ; but a close examination shows that it is 
entirely at variance with the construction of lunatic asylums in 
Christian countries. The lodgment of the patients, and admin- 
istration of the affairs, are perfectly wretched. 

On passing through a wide arch, on a public thoroughfare 
leading from the terminus of Frank-street, on the way to Bou- 
lac, the visiter enters a court. On the right is a Hnd of raised 
sidewalk, from which a door opens into a long passage-way. 
On one side of this is a range of small rooms, on the first floor, 
with windows, high enough to be quite above the reach of the 
inmates, and grated." In the centre of the doors commanding 
each apartment is an opening, not far from a foot square, grated 
with iron bars. Thus we could go from one door to the other, 
and, through the barred window, examine the interior of each 
cell. 

There was no furniture whatever, and the distracted crea- 
tures confined were maniacs indeed, made worse by the sever- 
ity of their incarceration. One was a negro, who was repre- 
31 



o'62 A riLGRIMAGE TO EGYPT. 

sented to have killed five men ; another had done his share 
of mad freaks ; and further along was somebody else. How 
they were treated could not be ascertained. They ran to a 
corner, and half concealed themselves in a tattered blanket, 
muttering-, as such unfortunate beings, with the form of mad- 
ness from which they were suffering, always do. Their hag- 
gard countenances, fearful, demoniac expressions, and frantic 
gesticulations, made it very evident that it was necessary to 
secure them beyond the power of doing harm to others. When 
or how they were fed, is unknown to me. One or two were 
walking about the court, who were indicated as cured. 

In the second story, I was satisfied that female voices were 
heard ; but the attendants declared there were no women there. 
Even on the outside, the evidence of the occupancy of apart- 
ments above those in possession of the males was very apparent. 
Still, the persistence in the declaration that no females were in 
or about the building made it certain that we could not be per- 
mitted to see them, if there were any. 

The extreme jealousy with which women are guarded by 
Mohammedans sufficiently explains why they would not per- 
mit them to be seen in the dreadful condition to which those in 
the moristan were reduced. 

Several men were always sitting at the court-gate, whenever 
we passed that way. One of them wore a sword ; and, in the 
passage-way referred to, were several others, who appeared 
quite willing to have us look through the doors, but w^ere 
importunate for backshiesh the moment the examination was 
completed. They all gathered about the one to whom a pit- 
tance was given, as though they intended to share in the gra- 
tuity. 

No medical attendant was spoken of, in connection with the 
charity ; and I am quite inclined to believe that nothing more 



ROADS. 363 

is done with an insane person than to shut him up out of 
harm's way, and wait the result. In describing the condition 
of the insane, in some parts of Syria, and in Constantinople, in 
another publication, it will be perceived that the laws of human- 
ity are very differently administered in different countries, and 
that they are exceedingly modified by the religious faith of 
those on whom devolves their administration. 

From inquiries and personal observations, insanity is not 
common. It is doubtful whether there are thirty in Cairo, in 
a population of about two hundred thousand. If the madhouse 
contains all there are in the city, then the number is small 
indeed ; but, making allowance for those that may be under 
restraint by their families, ■ — if such there are, — insanity bears 
by no means so large a proportion to the whole population as 
with us. 

PRESENT CONDITION OF THE ANCIENT RUINS. 

Were it not for the gratification of inspecting the enormous 
collection of colossal ruins, w4th which Egypt abounds, there 
would be but little inducement to explore it in the slow and 
expensive manner in which a journey is necessarily conducted. 
There are no roads, in the sense we affix to a highway. Path-s 
stretch off in various directions, made by camels, donkeys, and 
horses ; but not of a permanent character. Where they border 
or cross a section of the deserts, they are liable to be obliterated 
by the first sand-storm that occurs. When sheiks, and others 
who contract to carry persons to particular points, speak of 
roads, they simply mean the common route between any given 
places. 

In going to any specified locality, east or west of the Nile, 
beyond the arable land, the success of the jaunt exclusively 
depends on the judgment, tact and familiarity of the guide with 



364 A PILGRIMAGE TO EGYPT. 

the position of certain stars, bearings of rocks and sand-hills, 
when he last passed, the tracks of camels last over the ground, 
and an occasional brackish well of water. The Nile is the 
main highway through the country : whoever ascends or 
descends it sees nearly all there is to be observed of the towns 
and hamlets, unless he lands expressly to measure the length 
and breadth of mosques, dove-cotes, and such flimsy buildings 
as have been raised within the last fifty years. 

There are no houses of entertainment, — no stopping-places, 
after leaving the cities, where there are decent, comfort- 
able, or even secure accommodations. The traveller hires a 
boat, and it becomes his house. Whatever is necessary for 
daily consumption must be carried. Beds, pans, pots, fuel, tea, 
coffee, sugar, — indeed, every edible is put on board, — together 
vidth a cook, into the bargain ; and a regular family house- 
keeping is commenced when the boat departs either from Dam- 
ietta, Rosetta, Alexandria or Cairo, for an up-river voyage. 
The flag of the country from whence the individual came is 
raised on a stafT at the stern ; and thus equipped, all researches 
above the capital are uniformly commenced. 

Vast as the ruins of Egypt are, and grand beyond the con- 
ception of those who have not wandered through them, they 
indicate but a faint outline of what they must have been when 
in the acme of their architectural glory. Although successive 
conquerors, through the long period of over three thousand 
years, have each done something to deface and destroy the 
noblest works of art, the massiveness of the temples and the 
towering majesty of the pyramids have set their efforts at 
defiance ; and there they all are, where they were abandoned by 
a people who reared and protected them against foreign aggres- 
sion, till no longer able to maintain their ground ; and there 
they are likely to remain a thousand years longer, the monu- 



PROBABLE DURABILITY 01? THE PYRAMIDS. 365 

merits of the ingenuity — perhaps piety — and extraordinary 
mechanical resources of the ancient Egyptians. It is true that 
the outside layers of the pyramids of Geezeh are slowly decom- 
posing ; but so very gradually, that no calculation can be made 
upon their probable duration. While the crust of the earth 
remains as it is, Cheops will be a wonder. Nor is there any 
reason for supposing the second and third pyramids may not be 
equally lasting. 

No m.ore desperate efforts are likely to be commenced for 
prostrating them ; and they are too far from the capital, and 
transportation would be both too tedious and too expensive, to 
warrant the idea that any of the stone may be removed, for 
building purposes, to Cairo. There are no fears, therefore, of 
further depredations from that source ; and, before that city 
increases, it is quite probable that the seat of government may 
be transferred to Alexandria. 

The commercial advantages of the last-named city, its facil- 
ities for local business in its generously wide streets, and from 
the increase and concentration of wealth there, — which, mighty 
as it is in Christendom., is really a greater power in Egypt, — 
give increasing indications of such a destiny. 

It is not reasonable to suppose that any town, city or works, 
may spring into existence on the border of the forsaken, for- 
bidding desert of Libya, to pull dowm those gigantic monu- 
ments. 

The last visit I made to the pyramids was with Mr. Warren. 
We recollected some circumstances that demanded further 
examination, to give us a right understanding of the masonry ; 
and therefore took donkeys, by daylight, which had been engaged 
over night, and, much to our surprise, discovered, before reach- 
ing the ferry at Old Cairo, w^here the river is crossed to proceed 
to Geezeh, that only one driver was with us. 
31^ 



366 A PILGRIMAGE TO EGYPT. 

Having been there before, a guide was not absolutely re- 
quired; and thus we trotted on. On arriving at a little mud 
and palm village, within a mile of the Sphinx, there was a full 
canal, very unusually wide, that must necessarily be crossed. 
The Arabs came in squads, insisting upon the necessity of 
carrying us over on their shoulders, — it being dangerous, if 
not impracticable, to stick to the backs of the animals, which 
were too light and small to swim with us in that position. 
Consequently, we mounted them, and the donkeys were led 
over. 

It was plain enough, that there was no such depth of 
water as represented, for the animals, at no part of the passage, 
appeared to swim. In a fatiguing walk up to the entrance of 
the opening into the north side of the pyramid of Cheops, the 
rabble followed us, — half-naked, savage, importunate, supple 
dogs, — and each one insisted upon being our guide to the 
interior. Such w^as the confusion, in connection with a desire 
to rid ourselves of annoyance, we refused to have any of them, 
thus avoiding all complaint of partiality. 

That decision, however, did not calm the strife of am.bition 
for a job. But we were resolute and determined, and told them 
to keep their distance at their peril. At the very entrance sat 
the sheik of the village, a hard-featured fellow, who felt the 
weight of office. He demanded four shillings for permission to 
go in. He was asked if he owned the pyramids, and who 
authorized him to take toll in that exorbitant manner. We 
told him plainly that we should not pay him a farthing, should 
not take a guide, and he might stop us if he dared. He 
instantly remarked that we had no light, and therefore could 
see nothing. Upon that, each lighted a candle, brought for the 
purpose, and proceeded. Neither of us had arms of any kind, — 
not even a walking-stick or riding-whip, — but, nevertheless, we 



EXPLORATION OF CHEOPS. 367 

resolutely rushed down the inclined plane, dark, steep, and 
difficult. The group of bronzed Arabs looked after us with 
perfect amazement, their black eyes sparkling with the restless 
brightness of a boa constrictor's. On reaching the bottom, 
where an ascent was next to be made, — a fearfully dark and 
dismal place, still, hot and dirty, — one of the dozen or two at 
the mouth came sliding down, and caught me by the arm, say- 
ing he would show us. We were thankful to have him ; but 
it would not have been consistent to have gone back and solic- 
ited assistance, after the stand taken. 

We went from one strange place to another; and, in the 
end, reached the famous apartments called the king and queen's 
chambers. They were cased with very large slabs of polished 
granite, jointed with an exactness that made it difficult to find the 
seams. When it is recollected that the base of this pyramid 
covers five hundred and seventy-one thousand five hundred and 
thirty-six square feet of ground, and that we were obliged to 
grope the way by candle-light up and down, and through gyrat- 
ing passages, to the centre, some idea may be formed of the 
extent of our undertaking. Its present height is four hundred 
and sixty feet, nine inches. 

When satisfied, the candles being nearly exhausted, we 
made our exit into the midst of those left at the mouth on 
plunging in. The sheik again demanded four shillings, as his 
rightful due. They entertained an expectation of fleecing us 
at the canal, imagining it would be quite impossible to pro- 
ceed without their assistance. I led ofT a little donkey, — 
quite regardless of their asseverations that it was mooshtibe, 
and that we should be in the water over the backs of the short- 
legged beasts, — well knowing that a swim of a few rods, in a 
hot day, would be no difficult feat or unpleasant exercise. As 
on the other occasion, we triumphed, and came out in excellent 



368 A PILGRIMAGE TO EGYPT. 

condition, without a wet thread, on the opposite side, to their 
apparent confusion. 

It was not the payment of a reasonable fee that was objected 
to, but the unreasonable demand of backshiesh, in which each 
one was contending for a slice, that induced us to resist, and 
insist upon going on our own responsibility ; and, having once 
assumed an independent, nonchalant air, it would not do to 
swerve from it with Arabs. 

When we came down to the village, opposite the ford, to Old 
Cairo, the streets were lined with women, sitting promiscuously 
about, by hundreds, crying and wailing, in great distress. They 
had mud on their faces, on their bosoms, and front of their 
dress, and some spattered their cheeks with blue dye ; and they 
all presented an extraordinary spectacle, entirely new and unex- 
pected. On inquiry, we were informed that there had been a 
fair, which all the villagers had attended ; and, in the midst of 
their enjoyments, the pasha's soldiers rushed upon them, and 
secured all the young men for the army. Thus sons, husbands 
and brothers, were entrapped, without expectation of ever being 
liberated. They were shut up in a yard near by, and strictly 
guarded. I never witnessed stronger evidences of poignant 
grief, or had cognizance of a more despotic measure. Their 
crops, families, and everything else dear to the entrapped men, 
were ever after hopelessly beyond their reach. There was a 
rumored difficulty between the pasha and the sultan of Turkey, 
and this was a precautionary step towards increasing the 
Egyptian forces. 

While groping and feeling, inch by inch, in some parts of 
the pyramid, — a description of which would be quite absurd, 
since there is no end to the tedious minuteness bestowed upon 
each angle and niche by travellers, — I felt a conviction, as I 



PURPOSE OE THE PYRAMIDS. 369 

Still do, that the mystery of its internal construction has not 
yet been discovered. 

Colonel Vyse and others have, indeed, been laborious in their 
attempts to explain and expose the whole. The chambers are, 
in my humble estimation, nothing more than puzzles or lures, 
purposely introduced by the arch contrivers of these fabrics, 
anticipatory of the curiosity that would naturally enough be 
excited, in after ages of the world's history, to fathom the 
object of their erection. According to Herodotus, — who may 
be read with profit, and who is still a model guide, although he 
preceded us all, in his explorations, by two thousand three hun- 
dred 3'"ears, — the real beauties, the astounding wonders, and 
all that is truly calculated to astonish mankind, are still con- 
cealed beneath a mountain of quarried stone. 

The opportunity is better now than at any previous time for 
new researches ; and I have confidence in the opinion that 
something will yet be brought to light, from the secret archives 
somewhere under the pyramid of Cheops, which will invest 
the history of Egypt with a new interest, and perhaps furnish 
far more important materials than have yet come down through 
the broken chain of tradition, monumental hieroglyphical 
inscriptions, imperfectly deciphered, and fragmentary scraps of 
Manetho, to illustrate an earlier condition of the human race 
than has yet reached us through any other channel than the 
Mosaic writings. 

The care bestowed in the finishing of the exterior of the sec- 
ond, or pyramid of Cephrinus, is equally indicative of the 
importance attached to it. To remain contented with the old 
theory, that all the pyramids, were simply tombs for the indi- 
viduals in whose reigns they were built, is not at all satisfac- 
tory. It is not questioned that the royal remains of the august 
monarchs who furnished men and materials for the accomplish- 



370 A PILGRIMAGE TO EGYPT. 

merit of such very surprising achievements may have been 
deposited in them. But, if Herodotus is to be credited, — and 
his veracity should not be questioned till he has been proved 
in error, — the sepulchre of Cheops has not yet been dis- 
covered. He even gives a description of a communication, by 
means of a canal, between the interior of the pyramid and the 
Nile, which has not yet been found. If there is an island in 
the centre, below, crowned by a monument, over four hundred 
feet high, on which rests the sarcophagus containing the king's 
body, it has not been disturbed, and the discovery still awaits 
the persevering industry of a future Belzoni. In their imme- 
diate vicinity there are ranges of tombs, that were elaborately 
and skilfully made, the masonry of which quite overtops the 
very best specimens extant in these days, with all our advances 
in the arts of building. The sand has crept in, and filled them 
full, concealing hundreds, perhaps, that are unimpaired, and 
which are hermetically sealed, as it were, from the prying hands 
of the ignorant, demi-civilized wretches who inhabit that region, 
to surprise and enlighten mankind by the treasures of knowl- 
edge that will emanate from them hereafter. 

If the sand were carted off to the plain below, or a tempo- 
rary rail-track laid, to facilitate excavations, the world would 
be roused to a high feeling of enthusiasm by the develop- 
ments that would be made. Those were not periods of barbar- 
ism, when the sepulchres, the great cities, the temples and the 
pyramids, were reared. Had they all been swept away, and 
one stone of them no longer remained upon another, but, in 
their stead, a minute description of their magnitude, the sculp- 
tures, raised lEigures, massive columns, the red polished mono- 
liths covered with characters, and other things, equally singu- 
lar, but true, the history would no more have been credited 
than the stories of the Arabian Nights. The edifices them- 



THE PYRAMIDS. 371 

selves, which were the themes of admiration three thousand 
years ago,- have been preserved, and they surpass — yes, far 
surpass — the most vivid descriptions that were ever given of 
them. Therefore we have the evidence of our own senses, 
that the people who lived when these monuments of human 
ambition and mechanical adroitness were brought into form 
surpassed ourselves in architecture. We have neither the skill, 
patience nor means, with all our science, national resources, or 
constructiveness, to equal them in this departm.ent of energy 
and creative determination ; and if their wisdom and capacity 
were so great in this direction, it is but fair to suppose that 
they could not have come far short of our present civilization 
in most others. 

There is no limitation to a discussion of this character. The 
works of those people give conclusive evidence of their power 
and skill ; and I have entire confidence in the belief that more 
is to be known about them hereafter. The sand's insidious 
approach to the threshold of the beautiful temples of Abydos 
and Dendera, deplored as it may have been, and still is, has 
perhaps been ordered for the very purpose of preserving them 
and their more precious contents. These might be exposed, at 
no great cost; and, whenever that is done, it would not be dif- 
ficult to restore the lost stones, to replace those thrown down, 
and then, but not before, shall we know where those secret 
passages lead that are made visible at one extremity. Under 
the heavy stone floors there may be deep, strong vaults, and 
stone boxes, filled with sacred parchments and treatises, of infi- 
nite value to literature. 

One reason why those and all the other temples of Egypt 
have been able to resist the wear and war of ages is because 
the stones of which they were formed were of great size, and 
each end was finished. There was neither coating nor paint- 



372 A PILGRIMAGE TO EGYPT. 

ing on the outside, nor lathing, plastering or coloring within. 
There was a solid stone wall, rarely less than two feet, and, 
generally, three feet in thickness. All the joinings were admi- 
rable, — almost a glue joint; and, to prevent the stones from 
being displaced by violence, they were curiously dove-tailed 
together by wooden ties, which have lasted to this day. Had 
they been of iron, they would have been destroyed by oxyda- 
tion ; if of bronze or copper, their number and value might 
have led to depredations, for the sake of the metal ; but wood 
was subject to no such contingencies, and has proved equally 
useful, and more indestructible, than anything else that might 
have been employed for the purpose. 

When the walls were all up, and the roof securely on, — 
which last was made of immensely heavy blocks of sandstone, 
— the workmen began to dress them, on both surfaces. This 
is inferred from the circumstance that several of the great 
structures were left incomplete ; the chalk marks of the designer 
are still fresh, and as distinct as though drawn but a week ago. 
The rough chisel-cuttings, too, are recognized on cornices, on 
chapiters, friezes, and other prominent parts of the imperfect 
edifices. By proceeding in that manner, raised figures could 
be left on the face of the stone ; and it was in that way, beyond 
all question, all those masterly reliefs were produced. The 
sculptor, with his delicate tools, followed, closely and unerr- 
ingly, the designs of the artist. 

All the great columns at Karnak, Luxor, and Thebes, appear 
to have been simply piled up, block upon block, perpendicularly, 
beautifully joined, so that the line of contact is scarcely per- 
ceptible. The workmen, on suspended stagings, carried on the 
dressing, from top to bottom, patiently, but in exact accordance 
with the instruction they had received from those who were 



SCULPTURES IN TEMPLES. 373 

solicitous to preserve and transmit an exact and truthful record 
of whatever was considered essential to future generations. 

Battle scenes, an exhibition of a fleet, and the lofty bearing 
of the monarch, were displayed on the outer walls of the tem- 
ples, where a sight of them would recall the majesty and prow- 
ess of the sovereign, and enthusiasm for the defence of the 
country ; while, on the inside, on the holy of holies, the ceil- 
ing, overhead, in all apartments where the people were per- 
mitted, on great solemnities, to have a glimpse of the interior 
of sacred edifices, the portraits of the gods of Egypt, in the 
discharge of the high functions of their supreme offices, were 
exclusively exhibited. 

It is evident that every kind of pictorial illustration of this 
kind — and they are numerous beyond expression — was exe- 
cuted after the walls and pillars were completely in place. 
Had the designs been finished at the quarries, or other places, 
before the stones were raised, the beautiful and elaborately cut 
figures would have been marred in thousands of instances, and 
pitifully mutilated in all of them. 

There is a mechanical stiffness and severity in the drawings, 
that shows a strict adherence to an arbitrary system of symbolic 
expressions. When the ancient artists chose to exercise a 
freedom conformable to nature, they were unequalled for the 
ability displayed. Thus, in the gymnastic scenes in one of the 
tombs of Beni Hassan, it is plain that the artist was not com- 
pelled to follow any guide, but gave his own taste and judg- 
ment full play. But, on turning to the sacred enclosures, the 
temples where the mysteries of religion and religious rites were 
celebrated, the reliefs are stiff and formal. The great, un- 
meaning, unsymmetrical eye is invariably the same. Horus 
looks fiercely upon mortals, as he does upon his beatific asso- 
ciates in the realms of bliss. All the symbolical and hiero- 
32 



374 A PILGRIMAGE TO EGYPT. 

glyphical cuttings were not made in any one year or dynasty, 
but were carried on through a succession of reigns, for more 
than two thousand years, down to the epoch of the Ptolemies ; 
and public edifices were always being erected, through every 
reign ; and, however modified the government might have been, 
in that long succession of ages, the sacred written character 
appears to have always been precisely and unalterably the 
same. ' Whatever came within the care of the ajicient priest- 
hood — a learned, subtle body of prelates, who stood upon the 
shoulders of the people, and made religion the engine of an 
uncompromising despotism — was very systematically con- 
ducted ; and hence the uniformity and purity of the symbol- 
ical literature, which we so faintly appreciate. 

With a thousand dollars, judiciously expended, the principal 
temple of Abydos might be completely exposed to view ; and, 1 
doubt not, the discovery of works of art, and, perhaps, docu- 
ments, of which no tradition is extant, would be seemed, that 
would explain many difficult problems in regard to the early 
state of civilization in Egypt. The temple of Dendera was 
cleared out inside by the mandate of Mohammed Ali. Its 
grandeur the magnitude of its pillars, adytum, and the impos- 
ing effect of its beautiful proportions, are, in the highest degree, 
surprising. Collateral ruins, buried entirely, might yield tro- 
phies of equal value to literature ; but nothing has yet been 
accomplished towards ascertaining their internal condition. 
Within, all the buried temples are filled up with immense 
quantities of broken brick, and irregular stones, of one or two 
pounds in weight. Sometimes a heavy piece of hewn granite, 
or a fragment of white marble, intermingled with broken pot- 
tery, and light, porous dust, is found among the filling. Where 
such quantities of brick came from, is a perplexing question. 
They must have been brought there, and thrown in, with 



SCULPTURES IN TEMPLES. 375 

immense labor ; while, on the outside, the sand from the des- 
ert has accumulated round them, and actually covered them 
over, and the sand level, in all directions, has been uniformly 
raised. 

At Edfou, the principal temple was as rich and magnificent 
as art and the resources of the king and priests could malce it. 
That might be cleared, also, and be one of the most perfect of 
any in Egypt. The columns — the chapiters of which are 
partially exposed, by the activity of strangers, who have dug 
away some of the foul accumulations — exhibit an artistical 
perfection that would be difficult to imitate in these latter days, 
with the aid of all the powers, processes and appliances, we 
possess in the arts. That temple, from its mural protection, I 
imagine to have been a holy fortress, in which the priests were 
secure, and beyond the reach of civil commotions of the people. 
Before powder took the place of slings, bows, arrows and bat- 
tering-rams, this must have been a formidable habitation for 
the old managers of the political religion of the state. It may 
have also been a collegiate institution ; and, from the security 
with which it was guarded, has induced me to hope for the 
finding of more remains than in some others of less apparent 
importance. 

Thebes offers fewer prospects than any other of the great 
ruins, because its former eminence and wealth made it an 
inviting object for spoliations by the Persian invaders, under 
Cambyses, and those who imitated his destructive policy at 
later periods. More tombs in the mountain necropolis are in 
reservation, to reward the discoverer with a harvest of fresh 
objects, and illustrations of Egypt in its infancy and glory. 
Luxor is partially buried ; but the prospect is not good there for 
excavations, because it was sacked and pillaged by the sacri- 
legious hands that destroyed the beauty of Thebes and the 



376 A PILGRIMAGE TO EGYPT. 

majesty of Karnak. Possibly, in the ruins of the latter,— 
which must have excelled all other structures in Egypt, both in 
extent and opulence, — the priests, in their consternation at the 
approach of the dreaded invaders, may have concealed many 
of their sacred implements and manuscripts, v^^hich are yet to 
be brought up, for the edification of the literati in the last ages 
of the world. 

Philas is a cluster of ruins which it would be a pity to dis- 
turb, for a removal of the corner-stones, or base of columns, 
where researches would naturally be directed, would destroy 
all there now is of interest on the island. The island of Ele- 
phantine might yield a .compensation, should an exploration be 
attempted. As there is nothing left to be destroyed, the busi- 
ness of hunting for concealed vaults would consist in rolling 
huge blocks of granite from one position to another. Whether 
it was a priestly residence, has not been determined. 

From the great burial-fields, much may be expected by future 
researches. The Arabs, in their incessant greediness for buried 
property, are making shocking havoc with the mummy-pits at 
Sakkara and Thebes, and I know not how many other places ; 
and they have, beyond a doubt, often fallen upon real treasures 
to the antiquarian, of the value of which they knew nothing 
at all, and therefore cast away as useless. 

Uniform surprise is manifested, by those who visit the ruins 
of Egypt, that more remains of great cities do not exist. There 
were palaces for kings, and establishments for noblemen of the 
courts ; but not a wing of a palace remains, — no, not a single 
relic of a superior kind of dwelling for private individuals. I 
fully believe there never were, in any age of Egypt, any better 
dwellings than are now to be seen. Mud was the magazine 
from which the mass of the inhabitants drew to build their 
houses, as at present; and their decay explains, in part, the 



PRESENT GOVERNMENT OF EGYPT. 377 

gradual rise of all the mounds from vsmall beginnings. There 
may have been some brick structures in the immediate vicinage 
of a few temples ; there is no other way of accounting for the 
presence of brick. Wood was always scarce, even in the 
mummy-making ages, — an inference based upon the fact that 
all the mummy-cases were actually manufactured of small 
pieces of wood, dovetailed together. Foreign commerce might 
have supplied some timber ; but it was never introduced into 
the building of any of the temples. One generation, doubtless, 
followed the general customs of the preceding, building of mud, 
and other cheap, perishable materials ; and the modern houses 
of the fellahs are very analogous to those that have stood on 
the same ground in all past times. 

PRESENT GOVEHmiENT OF EGYPT. 

The last subject for consideration, in the foregoing connec- 
tion, is the political condition of Egypt at the termination of 
my investigations. 

Although Egypt is, nominally, a fief of the Turkish empire, 
yet it is really independent of it ; and the entire machinery of 
the government, and the resources and lives and property of the 
inhabitants, are under the exclusive control of a single indi- 
vidual, Abbas Pasha. He is the grandson of Mohammed Ali. 
By the stipulation of the European nations, Egypt is to be 
governed by his descendants just so long as an annual tribute is 
regularly paid into the treasury of the Sublime Porte, at Con- 
stantinople. 

The revenues, by land tax, capitation tax, and on imports at 
the custom-house, are assumed to be about fifteen millions of 
dollars, annually ; but there are no data for determining, v^^ith 
much exactness, the income of the government. Assuming the 
revenue at that sum, such is the shameful practice of extortion, 
32=^ 



378 A PILGRIMAGE TO EGYPT. 

by the subordinates of the pasha, who collect it, that it may 
safely be calculated that they contrive to sponge out of the 
people all of another million, which is variously divided among 
themselves. 

Abbas Pasha is represented to be an indolent man, short, fat, 
lethargic, and given to the pursuit of pleasure. He is further 
reputed to be a bigoted Moslem, a believer in the deadly influ- 
ences of the evil eye, and under the dominion of whims 
entirely beneath a common intelligence. He is good-looking, 
and has an amiable expression, when not heated by passion. 
His great ambition is to have beautiful horses, and a multitude 
of palaces. Even far out in the desert, on the route to Suez, 
he has a famous lounging-place ; and loves to converse, it is 
said, about the pure air and its invigorating properties, in that 
sandy locality. 

A gentleman related of him the following circumstance, 
which is said to have occurred the year before our arrival. A 
trusty groom had the care, at his highness' favorite desert 
station, of several very splendid Arab steeds, of which he was 
excessively fond. One day, the pasha arrived there from Cairo, 
and had just got into a comfortable position, to look from a 
window, when he saw some overland passengers bound to India, 
who had come on in the company's van, at station number 
eight. While they were waiting for a change of animals, they 
were also admiring his bloods. To allow this, was an unpar- 
donable offence upon the part of the groom, which was aggra- 
vated by the fact of his riding back and forward, that the 
gentlemen might have a full opportunity to appreciate their 
merit. The blood of the pasha boiled with a rage he had 
hardly the power to control, and he called down imprecations 
upon the head of the abandoned wretch who dared to permit 
the evil eye of Englishmen to rest upon his priceless stud. 



ABBAS PASHA AND HIS KELATI0N3. 379 

One of his suite, familiar with the temper, as well as the big- 
otry, of his imperial master, ran, as quickly as possible, to the 
innocent cause of this tempest of passion, and told him to run 
for his life, if he would escape the vengeance of his infuriated 
master. Leaping from the back of a horse, the frightened 
fellow instantly fled into the pathless desert, which offered the 
only prospect of security. 

Happily, a caravan picked him up ; and, after a long journey, 
he reached some part of Sj^ria, not recollected, where he still 
remained, wdren this relation was given. The pasha sent out 
for the poor vassal, at the acme of his wrath, as anticipated ; 
and, when disappointed of the satisfaction of crushing him with 
a blow of his might, as he intended, the fury of his vice-regal 
rage became intensely terrific. 

Yv^hile the stipulated number of purses are punctually remit- 
ted to his master in Turkey, Abbas Pasha w^ill, no doubt, be 
sustained by his European friends, who have guaranteed the 
integrity of the present order of things ; but a growing mis- 
understanding has been some time fermenting, and intimations 
are frequently given of a threatened rupture between the high 
controlling parties. 

The next heir to the throne is Said Pasha, admiral of the 
fleet, who has some excellent traits of character, being good- 
natured, and more liberal than the pasha in his rehgious and 
political views. Beyond him is a young lad, — the last child 
born to Mohammed Ali, in his extreme old age, — a bright, 
intelligent boy, somewhere near thirteen years of age. To him 
the public attention has been somewhat directed, with an 
expectation that the government may, finally, fall to his care. 

Ibrahim Pasha — the general, who certainly would have 
subverted the Ottoman throne, had his projects not been counter- 
acted by the diplomacy of Europe, united to preserve the Turk- 



380 A PILGRIMAGE TO EGYPT. 

ish empire — left three sons, before alluded to, who display 
energy and tact in business. They are manufacturers of sugar, 
on the Upper Nile; and, being better educated than most 
natives, they may hereafter play au important part in the 
political changes that await this doomed country. 

There is no scheme for bettering, elevating and enriching 
Egypt, that did not originate with Mohammed Ali. But all 
the old hero's plans for developing its resources, and civilizing 
the diverse races brought under his rule by conquest, are 
neglected by his grandson. Domestic economy is not encour- 
aged ; the manufacturing establishments are falling into decay, 
and some of the costly machinery, made in France, is now 
rusting, out of doors, on the banks of the river. In short, there 
is nothing doing that was commenced towards elevating mod- 
ern Egypt to a position of national respectability. Every 
department of the government has deteriorated since the death 
of the extraordinary genius who raised them from nothing into 
an orderly state of activity. 

There is vastly more freedom, and less embarrassment 
thrown in the way of the traveller, than in continental Europe. 
England is free as air, and next to it is Egypt ; and simply 
because British influence is exerted there for the protection 
and security of life and property. No such provoking annoy- 
ances and obstacles to progress are presented there as embar- 
rass the traveller in the papal states generally, and the king- 
dom of Naples, — two of the most contemptible governments 
recognized in the catalogfue of nations. Both of them are a 
disgrace to Christendom. They are so palpably bad, that even 
the few seeds of freedom sown there, and watered by the blood 
shed in the late unsuccessful revolutions, will germinate, and 
upheave and overturn them ; for they are a mockery, — the 
grossest violations of the laws of civilization. 



MOHAMMED ALI. " 381 

Yet all this security in Egypt was brought about, by Moham- 
med Ali, from the most diverse and discordant materials, the 
echo of whose name among the ruins of his country, from Cle- 
opatra's Needle to the waving palms of central Africa, and over 
the unsurveyed deserts where Ishmaelites roam for plunder, 
continues to ' inspire more terror, in those who entertain no 
respect for order or law, than the forces at the disposal of all 
the despots on the globe. 

Mohammed Ali was sometimes cruel, reckless of human 
life, and a tyrant. When he had overcome the Mamelukes, 
who were plotting for his destruction, and whom he was justi- 
fied in securing, by the first law, — that of self-preservation, — 
he turned his attention to the arts that belong to peace ; but his 
desires were thwarted, and he was compelled to warfare. It is 
not my province to discuss his policy, or animadvert on his 
sins. He was a great man, a statesman of enlarged views, 
who, with nothing but the indomitable energy of his nature, — 
without fortune, patrons, or the assistance of allies, — founded 
a kingdom, and transmitted it to his posterity. The disadvan- 
tages against which he was obliged to contend would have been 
insurmountable to any other person, placed under the pressure 
of similar circumstances. Among other accusations, he has 
been charged with despoiling the ruins of Egypt; but the 
assaults made upon those monuments, in the name of science, 
by the notorious Dr. Lepsius, have been far more productive 
of evil than those of Mohammed Ali. 

Mohammed Ali could neither read nor write ; and, to the 
day of his death, knew no other language than his mother 
tongue. How was it possible, without education, without even 
a knowledge of the character of those splendid monuments, he 
could have appreciated their intrinsic value, as they are esti- 
mated by the scholar, or a student in the lore of arch£eology ? 



382 A PILGRIMAGE TO EGYPT. 

By his orders, a few unimportant structures were destroyed, 
for the purpose of rearing edifices which were to be of practical 
utility. He knew not their importance, and desisted from fur- 
'ther depredations when his mind had been enlightened in 
regard to them. It has been the custom of English tourists, 
and certainly a policy of English officials, to abuse, without 
stint or hesitancy, the memory of that extraordinary man. He 
commenced with nothing, and died an emperor in exploits ; the 
whole world, at one period, rang with his name. What was 
Egypt, when he undertook those moral and domestic revolu- 
tions which have made it what it is, but a vast den of thieves, 
robbers, brigands and murderers ? It was a series of petty sov- 
ereignties, or, rather, despotisms, under the military sway of 
infamous marauding chieftains, who neither acknowledged the 
rights of Christians, Mohammed, or the devil, although serving 
the two latter with untiring vigor. My opinions are radically 
changed in relation 'to the character and historical claims of 
Mohammed Ali, whose destiny would have been a divan in 
Constantinople, had it not been for the interference of the dom- 
inant powers of Europe. 

Egypt is a problem ; what awaits it in the future it is diffi- 
cult to predict. I have but a faint expectation that Abbas 
Pasha will remain many years in quiet possession of a country 
that is at his individual mercy, without an obligation to render 
an account of his administration to a superior, or to the people, 
whom his minions are grinding to the dust. How the revenues 
are disbursed no one presumes to inquire; or upon what princi- 
ple taxation is made is equally a puzzle, beyond the ken of 
civilized politicians. How long the present order of things 
will remain is questionable, since it is well known that the 
elements of discord are operating between, the viceroy and the 
Sublime Porte ; and it is equally beyond the sagacity of those 



CONCLUDING EEMAB-KS. 383 

v/ho are accustomed to the more stable organization of society 
in refined, Christian England, and the United States of North 
Arnerica, to predict what destiny is reserved for the ancient 
land of the Pharaohs. 



-iA 



VALUABLE WORKS 

PUBLISHED BT 

GOULD AND LINCOLN, 

59 WASHINGTON STREET, BOSTON. 



ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY FOR 1850; or, Year-Book of Facts in 
Science and Art, exhibiting tlie most important discoveries and improvements in Mechan- 
ics, Useful Arts, Natural Philosophy, Chemistry, Astronomy, Meteorology, Zoology 
Botany, Mineralogy, Geology, Geography, Antiquities, &c. ; together with a list of recent 
Scientific Publications ; a classified list of Patents ; obituaries of eminent Scientific Men ; 
an index of important papers in Scientific Journals, reports, &c. Edited by David A. 
Wells, and Geoege Buss, Jk. With Portrait of Prof. Agassiz. 12mo,.. cloth,.... 1,25 

paper covers, . . . .1,00 

This work ■will he issued annually, and the reading pubKc may easily and promptly possess 
themselves of the most important facts discovered or announced in these departments. 

As it is not intended for scientific men exclusively, but to meet the -wants of the genend reader, 
it has been the aim of the Editors that the articles should be brief and intelligible to all. The 
Editors have received the approbation, counsel and personal contributions of Professors Agassiz, 
Horsford, and Wyman, of Harvard University, and many other scientific gentlemen. 

THE ANNUAL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY, FOR 1851; Edited by David A. 
Wells, and Geoege Bliss, Jb. With Portrait of Prof. Silliman. 12mo, . . cloth, .... 1,25 

Paper covers,. . . .1,00 
B®" Each volume of the above work is distinct in itself, and contains eniirely new matter. 

THE POETRY OF SCIENCE; or, The Physical Phenomena of Nature. By Robekt 
Hunt, author of *'Panthea," "Researches of Light," etc. Eu'st American, from the 
second London edition. 12mo, cloth,. . . .1,25 

" The author, while adhering to true science, has set forth its truths in an exceedingly captivating 
Btyle." — Commercial Advertiser. 

" We are heartUy glad to see this interesting work re-published in America. It is a book that is 
a book." — Scientific American, 

" It is one of the most readable, interesting, and instructive works of the kind, that we have ever 
teen." — Thil. Christian Observer. 

CYCLOP/EDIA OF ANECDOTES OF LITERATURE AND THE FINE AHTS. 

Containing a copious and choice selection of Anecdotes of the various forms of Literature, 
of the Arts, of Architecture, Engravings, Music, Poetry Painting and Sculpture, and of 
the most celebrated Literary Characters and Artists of different countries and Ages, etc* 
By Kazlitt Aevine, A. M., author of " Cyclopaedia of Moral and Religious AnecdofceSj'* 
octavo, cloth, in vnn 

CYCLOP/EDIA OF SCIENTIFIC ANECDOTES, containing a selectica r?specting 
the various Sciences and Mechanical Arts, and of their most distinguished Votariss. By 
Kazlitt Aevine, A. M., author of " Cyclopaedia of Moral and Religious Anecdotes." 
One volume, .cloth, in press. 

The two works together, will embrace the best Anecdotes in Ancient and Modem collections, as 
well as Ln various Histories, Biographies and FUes of Periodical Literature, ^-c. The wliole classified 
under appropriate subjects, alphabetically arranged, and each supplied with a very fall and 
particular Index of topics and names. Both the above volumes wiU first be published in numbers 
.—sixteen in aU, at 25 cents each — making together two large octavo volumes, of about 700 pages 
each, illustrated with numerous fine engravings. The first number will be issued about the first 
of April, to be continued senri-monthly until completed. 



THE FOOT-PRINTS OF THE CREATOR ; or, the Asterolepsis of Sfcronmess, 
■with numerous illustrations. By Hugh Miller, author of " The Old Red Sandstone," 
&c. From the third London Edition. With a Memoir of the author, by Louis Agassiz. 
12mo,. .' cloth, 1,00 

De. BtrcKLAiTD, at a raeeting of the British Association, said he had never been so much aston- 
ished in his life, by the powers of any man, as he had been by the geological descriptions of Mr. 
MiUer. That wonderful man described these objects with a facihty which made him ashamed-of 
the comparative meagreness and poverty of liis own descriptions in the " Bridgewater Treatise," 
wliich had cost him hours and days of labor. J3e would give his left hand tox>ossess such power » 
of description as this man ; and if it pleased Providence to spare his useful life, he, if any one, 
woidd certainly render science atti-active and popular, and do equal service to theology and geology. 

" JMr. SliUer's style is remarkably pleasing ; his mode of popularizing geological knowledge un- 
surpassed, perhaps unequalled; and the deep reverence for Divine Kevelation pervading ah, adds 
interest and value to the volume." — Jfeio York Com, Advertiser. 

" The publishers have again covered themselves with honor, by giving to the American public, 
with the Author's permission, an elegant reprint of a foreign work of science. We earnestly 
bespeak for this work a wide and free circulation, among aU who love science much and reUgion 
more." — Puritan Recorder, 

THE OLD RED SANDSTONE ; or, New Walks in an Old Field. By Hugh Millee 
Illustrated with Plates and Geological Sections. 12m03 cloth, . . . .1,00 

" Mr. Miller's exceedingly interesting book on this formation is just the sort of work to render 
any subject popular. It is written in a remarkably pleasing style, and contains a wonderful 
amount of information." — Westnmister Review. 

" It is withal, one of the most beautiful specimens of EngUsh composition to be found, coAvey- 
ing information on a most diflnloult and profound science, in a style at once novel, pleasing and 
elegant. It contains the results of twenty years close observation and experiment, resulting in an 
accumulation of facts, which not only dissipate some dark and knotty old theories with regard to 
ancient formations, but establish the great truths of geology in more perfect and harmonious con- 
sistency with the great truths of revelation." — Albany Spectator. 

PRINCIPLES OF ZOOLOGY : Touching the Structure, Development, Distribution, 

and Natural Arrangement of the Races op Animals living and extinct, with numerous 
illustrations. For the use of Schools and Colleges. Part I., Compae,ative Physiology. 
By Louis Agassiz and Augustus A. Gould. Revised edition. 12mo, . . .cloth, . . . .1,00 

" This work places us in possession of information half a century in advance of aU our elemen- 
tary works on this subject. * * No work of the same dimensions has ever appeared in the 
EngUsh language, containing so much new and valuable information on the subject of which M 
treats." — Prof. James Hall, in the Albany Journal. 

"A work emanating from so high a source hardly requires commendation to give it currency. 
The volume is prepared for the student in zoological science ; it is simple and elementary in its 
style, fuU in its iUustrations, comprehensive in its range, yet weU condensed, and brought into the 
narrow compass reqmsite for the purpose intended." — Silliman's Journal. 

" The work may safely be recommended as the best book of the Mnd in our language."— C%rw 
tian Examiner. 

" It is not a mere book, but a work — a real work in the form of a book. Zoology is an inlerestivg 
Bcience, and here is treated with a masterly hand. The history, anatomical structure, the nature 
and habits of numberless animals, are described in clear and plain language and Ulustraied with 
innumerable engravings. It is a work adapted to coUeges and schools, and no young man should 
be without it." — Scientific American. 

PRINCIPLES OF ZOOLOGY, PART II. Systematic Zoology, in which the Prin- 
ciples of Classification are applied, and the principal groups of animals are briefly 
eharacierjzed. With numerous illustrations. 12mo, [in preparation] 



THE EARTH AND MAN : Lectures on CoirPARATivE Physical Geographf, in ita 
relation to the History of Mankind. By Arnold Guyot, Professor of Physical Geography 
and History, Keuchatel. Translated from the French, by Prof. C. C. Eelton, with illus- 
trations. Second, thousand. 12niOj cloth, ... .1,25 

" Those who have been accustomed to regard Geography as a merely descriptive branch of learn- 
ing, drier than the remainder biscuit after a voyage, wUl be delighted to find this hitherto un- 
attractive pursuit converted into a science, the principles of which are definite and the results 
conclusive." — North American Review. 

" The grand idea of the work is happily expressed by the author, where he calls it the geograph- 
ical march of history. Faith, science, learning, poetry, taste, in a word, genius, have liberally 
contributed to the production of the work under review. Sometimes we feel as if we were 
studying a treatise on the exact sciences ; at others, it strikes the ear like an epic poem. Now it 
reads like liistory, and now it sounds hke prophecy. It wUl find readers in whatever language 
it may be published." — Cliristian Examiner. 

" The work is one of high merit, exhibiting a wide range of knowledge, great research, and % 
philosophical spirit of investigation. Its perusal will well repay the most learned in such subjects, 
and give new views to all, of man's relation to the globe he inhabits."— &7Ztman's Journal. 

COMPARATIVE PHYSICAL AND HISTORICAL GEOGRAPHY; or, tho 

Study of the Earth and its Inhabitants. A series of graduated courses for the use of 
Schools. By Arnold Guyot, author of " Earth and Man," etc. 

The series hereby announced will consist of three courses, adapted to the capacity of three dif- 
ferent ages and periods of study. The first is intended for primary schools, and for children of 
from seven to ten years. The second is adapted for higher schools, and for young persons of from 
ten to fifteen years. The third is to be used as a scientific manual in Academies and Colleges. 

Each course wiU be divided into two parts, one of purely Physical Geography, the other for Eth- 
nography, Statistics, PoUtical and Historical Geography. Each part will be illustrated by a colored 
Physical and PoUtical Atlas, prepared expressly for this purpose, delineating, with the greatest 
care, the configuration of the surface, and the other physical phenomena alluded to in the corres- 
ponding work, the distribution of the races of men, and the political divisions into States, §-c., ^c. 

The two parts of the first or preparatory course are now in a forward state of preparation, and 
will be issued at an early day. 

MURAL MAPS: a series of elegant colored Maps, exhibiting the Physical Phenomena 
of the Globe. Projected on a large scale, and intended to be suspended in the Recitation 
Room. By Arnold Guyot {in preparation'] 

KITTO'S POPULAR CYCLOP/EDIA OF BIBLICAL LITERATURE. Con- 
densed from the larger work. By John Kitto, D. D., F. S. A., author of " The Pictoral 
Bible," "History and Physical Geography of Palestine," Editor of "The Journal -of 
Sacred Literature," etc. Assisted by numerous distinguished Scholars and Divines, 
British, Continental and American. With numerous illustrations. One TOlume, 
octayo, 812pp cloth, . . . .3,00 

The Popular Biblical Cyclopedia of Literature is designed to famish a Dictionaet 
CF THE Bible, embodying the products of the best and most recent researches in Biblical Liter- 
ature, in which the Scholars of Europe and America have been engaged. The work, the result 
of immense labor and research, and enriched by the contributions of writers of distinguished 
eminence in the various departments of Sacred Literature, — has been, by universal consent, 
pronounced the best work of its class extant ; and the one best suited to the advanced knowledge 
of the present day in all the studies connected with Theological Science. 

The Cyclopsedia of Biblical Literature from which this work is condensed hy the author, la 
published in two volumes, rendering it about twice the size of the present work, and is intended, 
says the author, more particularly for Ministers and Theological Students ; whUe the Pox/ular 
Cyclopaedia is intended for Parents, Sabbath School Teachers, and the great body of the religious 
public. It has been the author's aim to avoid imparting to the work any color of sectarian or 
denominational bias. On such points of difi"erence among Christians, the Historical mode of 
treatment has been adopted, and care has been taken to provide a fair account of the arguments 
which have seemfd most conclusive to the ablest advocates of the various opinions. The Pictoral 
Illustrations — amounting to more than three hundred — are of the very highest order of th© a**. 



a=M?.^'^n e^iipwiii^ w<! 



LAKE SUPERIOR : its Physical Character, Vegetation and Animals, compared with 
those p' other and similar regions, by L. Agabbiz, and contributions from other eminent 
Scieiitlfle Gentlemen. With a Narrative of the Expedition, and illustrations by J. E. 
Cabo*;. One volume octavo, elegantly illustrated, cloth, . . . .3,50 

Tlie illustrations, seventeen in number, are in the finest style of the art, by Sonrel ; embracing 
ijake and Landscape Scenery, Fishes, and other objects of Natural History, with an outline map 
.>f Icake Superior. 

This work is one of the most valuable scientific works that has appeared in this country. 
Embodying the researches of our best scientific men, relating to a hitherto comparatively unknown 
region, it will be found to contain a great amount of scientific information. 

CHAMBERS' CYCLOPAEDIA OF ENGLISH LITERATURE. A Selection of 
the choicest productions of English Authors, from the earliest to the present time. 
Connected by a Critical and Biographical History. Forming two large imperial octavo 
volimies of 700 pages each, double column letter press ; with upwards of 300 elegant 

Illustrations. Edited by Robert Chajibers, embossed cloth,. . . .5,00 

cloth, full gUt, extra,. . . .7,50 
sheep, extra, raised bands,. . . .6,00 

The work embraces about one thousand Authors, chronologically arranged and classed as Poets, 
Historians, Dramatists, Philosophers, Metaphysicians, Divines, etc., with choice selections from 
their writings, connected by a Biographical, Historical, and Critical Narrative ; thus presenting a 
complete view of Enghsh Literature, from the earliest to the present time. Let the reader open 
where he wiU, he cannot fail to find matter for profit and delight. The Selections are gems,— > 
infinite riches in aHttle room, — ^in the language of another "A whole Ejs^glish Libeaet fused 

DOWN IlfTO ONE CHEAP BOOK I " 

C^ The Ameeicait edition of this valuable work is enriched by the addition of fine steel and 
mezzotiat Engravings of the heads of Shakspsaee, Addisoit, Byeok'; afuh length portrait of 
De. Johnson ; and a beautiful scenic representation of Olivee Goldsmith and De. Johnson. 
These important and elegant additions, together with superior paper and binding, render the 
Ameeican, superior to all other editions. 

CHAMBERS' MISCELLANY OF USEFUL AND ENTERTAINING KNO¥/L- 
EDGE. Edited by Wilijam Chambers. With elegant Illustrative Engravings. 10 vols. 

cloth,.... 7,50 

cloth, gilt,.... 10 jOO 

library, sheep,. . . .10,00 

1^- This work has been highly recommended by distinguishei! individuals, as admirably adapted 
to EamUy, Sabbath and District School Libraries. 

" It would be difficult to find any miscellany superior or even equal to it ; it richly deserves the 
epithets ' useful and entertaining,' and I woiild recommend it very strongly, as extremely well 
adapted to form parts of a Ubrary for the young, or of a social or circulating Ubrary, in town or 
c©Tmtry." — George B, Emerson, Esq., Chairman Boston Sclwol Book Committee. 

CHAMBERS' PAPERS FOR THE PEOPLE. 12mo, in beautiful omamenteil 
covers , ••.... 

This series is mainly addressed to that numerous class whose minds have been educated by the 
improved schooling, and the numerous popular lectures and publications of the present day, and 
•who consequently crave a higher kind of Literature than can be obtained through the existing 
cheap periodicals. The Papers embrace History, Ai-ch£8ology, Biography, Science, the Industrial 
and Fine Arts, the leading topics in Social Economy, together with Criticism, Fiction, Personal 
Narrative, and other branches of Elegant Literature, each number containing a distinct subje:t. 

The series wiU consist of sixteen numbers, of 192 pages each, and when completed, wiU mak? 
tight handsome volumes of about 400 pages each. 



mW&MWM^MW 



KITTO'S POPULAR CYCLOPvSDiA OF BIBLICAL LITERATURE. Con 

densed from the larger work. By John Kitto, D. D. Assisted by numeroua 
distinguished Scholars and Divines, British, Continental and American. With 
numerous illustrations. One volume, octavo, 812 pp. cloth, 83,00 

^jpUr" This is just THE work for Sabbath School Teachers, the Family Library, and for 
every one, indeed, who wishes aid in the study of the Scriptures. It contains aa 
immense amount of important information to be found nowhere else. 

Tlie New York Commercial Advertiser says, " This is a Dictionary of scriptural topics, 
•wliich should find a place in every library. Sunday School Teachers, and all who study the 
Scriptures, mil find this Cyclopsedia a more valuable auxiliary than any -work estant of 
■whichwe have a knowledge. 

It is the result of the combined biblical, scholastic, and scientific minds of the highest 
order, and scarcely a question can arise in the mind of the reader of the' Sacred Book, but 
day be answered by reference to this comprehensive volume. For the Family Library, as 
■well as for Bible Classes and Sunday School Teachers, we cordially recommend it." 

The Puritan Recorder says, " Here we have the larger work referred to in the title, boiled 
down more than one half, and made more strong and rich by the evaporation. To that 
numerous and most txseful class of laborers in the Lord's vineyard, the Sabbath School 
Teachers, we wotild respectfully offer our advice to appropriate three dollars each to make 
themselves possessors of this valuable help for the discharge of their duties. If any one 
of them should not have the money, we counsel him ' to seU his garmeiit and buy one.'' " 

The Philadelphia CJiristian Observer says, " This is a large, handsome and valuable book ; 
it is very happily adapted to meet the wants of the Family, the Sunday School Teacher, and 
the great majority of the Christian public. As a Bible Dictionary, it is a work of distin- 
guished merit, embodying the results of the best and most recent researches in biblical 
literature, in which the scholars of Europe and America have been engaged." 

, The Mercantile Journal says, " We have examined the work with the greatest interest, and 
can assure our readers that it is a book of no ordinary value. We know of no work which 
is more worthy a place by the side of the Bible in every family. It is a book whii-h the 
Bible reader will consult with pleasure, and which will enhance the interest of the Bible 
itself, by making the reader more thoroughly acquainted with the localities mentioned 
therein, with the circumstances connected with the preparation of each book of the sacred 
Word, with the manners and customs of the ancients, with the geography of the Holy 
Land, and, in short, with every thing connected with the literature of the Bible which 
would be likely to be of interest to the ordinary reader." 

The Albany Spectator says, " Here is indeed a rich treasury for the minister and the 
church, embodying the products of the best, most recent, and reliable researches in biblical 
Uterature, and presented in a form so full, and yet so condensed, as to put it within the 
reach of hundreds of ministers who did not feel able to purchase the unabridged work 
In this volume you have the pith of the entire worii." 

The CJiristian Chronicle says, " It is a work of immense research, embodjdng the latest 
results of biblical study, contributed by a large corps of enthusiastic and venerable 
scholars. 

For reference in the family,' for the use of the Sabbath School Teacher, and for Bible 
Classes, it is beyond comparison the best bibUcal manual issued from the press We pre- 
dict for it an extensive circulation, for it must gradually displace Robinson's Camlet, and 
the other smaller and more incomplete manuals which have hitherto been in common use." 

T?ie New YorJc Christian Intelligencer says, " We know of no work in the language, as 
a repository of bibUcal hterature, to be at all compared with this most valuable collection 
of Dr. Kitto. This work is an emanation from more than forty of the most able and pro- 
found scholars in sacred hterature to be found in the world. England, Scotland, Ger- 
many, and these United States, have all here a most respectable representation ; and the 
work does honor to them all." 



^I^I^WIjW WWM'M^BMM 



iM-'a 



ARVINE'S CYCLOPi^DIA OF ANECDOTES OF LITERATURE AMD THE 
FINE ARTS. Containing a copious and choice selection of Anecdotes of the 
various forms of Literature, of the Arts, of Architecture, Engravings, Music, 
Poetry, Painting and Sculpture, and of the most celebrated Literary Characters 
and Artists of different countries and ages, etc. Elegantly Illustrated. 
This is a most amusing, instructive and entertaining work. The anecdotes are 

of a high order, and of such wonderful variety as to furnish something of interest 

for every class of readers, upon almost every possible topic. 

The Christian Times says, " The work will be one of rare Interest to the scholar and to 
the general reader. It is illustrated with engravings, and finely printed, the pages resem- 
bling in size and form the noble edition of ' Chamber's Cyclopgsdia,' by the same pub- 
lishers." 

The Carpet Bag says, " This is one of the best books of the season, and it presents, in a 
compact form, a thousand wise, witty and remarkable things, that might otherwise never 
have reached that inordinate public, which, like the daughter of the ' horse leech ' we 
read of, is continually craving." 

The work will first be published in eight numbers, at twenty-five cents eacl* 
which together will make an elegant royal octavo volume of about 730 pages. The first 
number has just been issued, and the others will follow once in two weeks till com- 
pleted. 

A WREATH AROUND THE CROSS; or. Scripture Truth Illustrated. By 
Kev. a. Morton Brown. ' With an Intboduoiion, by Eev. John Angell James. 
With an elegant Frontispiece. 16mo. cloth, 60 cents. 

he Zion^s Herald says, " In a richly evangelical style the author illustrates the essential 
i.uths of religion by their relation to the Cross. The plan of the work is happy, and its 
execution able." 

The Albany Spectator says, "We have not seen a book for many a day with a more 
beautifvtl title than this. And the frontispiece is equally beautiful, presenting Christ as 
cheering the prospect. Leaving the field of mere controversy to others, the author at once 
approaches and leads all with him to the cross ; exhibits it as the means of our justifica- 
tion, sanctification and eternal blessedness ; aims to cultivate the heart rather than the 
intellect ; takes the enquirer from the sign to the thing sanctified ; and gives both edification 
and consolation to enquiring sinners." 

GUYOT'S MURAL MAP OF THE WORLD, on a large scale, (5 by7feet,)for 
the Recitation Room. Printed in three colors. Price, mounted, $10,00. 

THE NATURAL HISTORY OF THE SPECIES; its typical forms and 
primeval distribution. With elegant illustrations. By Charles flAMiLTON Smith. 
With an Introduction, containing an abstract of the views of Blumenbach, 
Prichard, Bachman, Agassiz, and other writers of repute, by Samuel KneelanDj 
Jr., M. D. 12mo. cloth, $1,25 

THE EXCELLENT WOMAN, as described in the Book of Proverbs. With 
splendid Illustrations, and an Introduction, by Rev. William B. Sprague, D. D. 
12mo. cloth, extra, inprcss 

lO^ An elegant Gift Booh. 

NOVELTIES OF THE NEV/ WORLD; an Account of the Adventures and 
Discoveries of the First Explorers of North America. 12mo. cloth, inpress. 

Being second volume of Banvard's Series of American HisioRiEg. 

>OUNG AMERICANS ABROAD: or Vacation in Europe ; embodying the results 
of a tour through Great Britain, France, Holland, Belgivun, Germany and Switzerland, 
mih elegant Illustrations. 16mo. cloth, in press. 



n ^6 



*> 







?-^ -% 



.^ 



,0 o. -> S ' 



■"OC 



i.^ %.. 






^ A^ .v.«, ^^^'«-^"' ^^ owe- ^-.^ 




•\ ^ <P (CO 










o 



xO'^.. 



K <^^ '^ffI•^*^0 '^-. 'i'^ n^ 










-^^^ 









^ ,0 Deacidified using the Bookkeeper proc 

o,'^ Neutralizing agent: Magnesium Oxide 
-^ ' ^ - Treatment Date: May 2003 

PreservationTechnol 

A WORLD LEADER IN PAPER PRESE 

1 1 1 Thomson Park Drive 
Cranberry Township. PA ' 





process, 
xide 

logie: 

;RVATlo^ 

16066 




\^^^. 









Z ^r 



.V^ 









^ ^( 




>"-. ' 












•^ 



,1v' 



■~^' 

















o<^^. 



^O 



<p 






o 






